mm  riiK  church 


KEEDY 


DEO  ??  1920 


BV  4501  .K4  19lT 
Keedy,  Edward  K.  1869-1931 
The_ exceeding  worth  of 
joining  the  church 


THE   EXCEEDING  WORTH 
OF  JOINING  THE   CHURCH 


BY 


.      DEC  29  1920 
EDWARD   E.  KEEDY 


AUTHOR   OF      THE   NATURALNESS   OF  CHRISTIAN   LIFE' 
"moral  LEADERSHIP   AND   THE   MINISTRY" 


BOSTON 

HORACE  WORTH    COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright  igi8 
By  Edward  E.  Keedy 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I     This  Little  Book  is  Introduced  to  the 
Reader       5 

II     Human  Need  Brings  the  Church  Into 

Being 12 

III  Public  Confession  is  Required  in  Other 
Relations    < 14 

IV  Joining  the  Church  Exalts  a  Deliber- 
ate Conclusion  as  Over  Against  Mere 
Circumstance  or  Caprice 24 

V  Joining  the  Church  Does  not  Create 
Obligations  ;  it  Recognized  the  Obliga- 
tions that  Already  Exist 31 

VI     To    Confess    Christ    is    Perhaps    the 

Greatest  Service  One  Can  Render    .     .     39 

VII     Who  are  Fit  for  Church  Membership    43 

VIII     Saints  Outside  of  the  Church     ...     50 

IX  Public  Confession  of  Christ  is  the  Best 
Test  of  That  Loyalty  Which  Makes 
THE  Christian 56 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

X     At  Some  More  Convenient  Season     .     .     60 


XI     The  Terrible  Consequence  of  Insincer- 
ity IN  Settling  a  Question      ....     82 

XII     Fear  of  Others  May  Take  the  Place  of 

Our  Own  Honest  Conviction      ...     86 

XIII     Once  the  Start  is  Made,  Church-Mem- 
bership IS  Full  of  Delights     ....     88 


The  Book  Introduced  to  the  Reader 


CHAPTER  I 

THIS  LITTLE  BOOK  IS  INTRODUCED  TO 
THE  READER 

This  little  book  is  put  into  the  reader's  hands 
through  the  interest  of  several  men,  acting  as 
they  believe  upon  a  prompting  of  God.  For 
God  still  lives,  and  still  works.  So  true  is  it 
that  God's  part  in  our  lives  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  things  about  them,  that  our  good 
intentions,  and  good  feelings,  and  good 
deeds,  coming  to  being  in  us  —  like  some 
great  teacher's  knowledge  coming  to  being 
in  his  pupils  —  are  of  his  prompting.  If 
then,  for  example,  men  in  common  life  con- 
vey a  message  to  other  men  by  means  of  let- 
ters and  booklets,  it  is  not  likely  that  God  be 
so  stupid  a  manager  as  not  to  use  the  chance 
there  is  in  some  little  book  He  has  caused  to 
be  written  and  put  into  the  hands  of  one 
whose  heart  He  has  opened.  If  in  business 
affairs,  men  are  moved  to  action  by  even  an 
advertisement  —  great  businesses  being  built 
up  through  the  use  of  print  —  it  would  seem 
as  if  God  could  not  be  so  stupid  as  not  to 

[  5  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

know  what  business  men  know  so  well,  nor 
knowing  it,  that  He  would  be  so  careless  as 
not  to  use  it.  No,  reader,  doubt  not  that  God 
working  his  purpose  through  men,  has  put 
this  book  into  your  hands. 

If  there  came  into  your  hands  a  booklet 
claiming  to  be  from  some  great  business  cor- 
poration with  a  message  of  financial  gain, 
you  would  give  it  attention  and  time,  weigh 
its  claim  and  its  message.  There  is  asked  for 
this  little  book  the  same  candid  considera- 
tion. You  ma}^  be  inclined  to  put  it  aside 
unread  and  unconsidered.  But  you  would 
stand  condemned  if  you  had  to  acknowledge 
to  yourself  that  you  who  give  sincere  and 
eager  attention  to  a  proposition  concerning 
making  money,  had  given  short  unheeding 
shrift  to  the  message  of  those  claiming  to 
speak  for  God.  More  likely  however,  is  it,  that 
the  same  Mind  that  has  brought  this  message 
into  your  hands  will  prompt  you  to  consider 
the  message  and  weigh  the  claims  of  those 
bearing  it,  and  there  be  given  by  that  decision 
to  deal  candidly  with  the  matter,  proof  both 
that  God  is  speaking  to  you,  and  that  you  are 
giving  an  honest  answer. 

The  matter  brought  to  you  with  this  high 

[  6  ] 


The  Book  Introduced  to  the  Reader 


claim  has  to  do  with  your  becoming  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church.     For  consider  that  God, 


He  would  deserve  utmost  contempt,  who,  giving  all  needed 
time  and  serious  attention  to  proposals  for  making  money,  had 
given  short  unheeding  shrift  to  the  proposals  of  those  claim- 
ing to  speak  for  God. 

should  He  speak  to  you,  would  be  likely  to 
concern  Himself  with  something  like  this. 
The  character  of  the  message  brought,  there- 
fore, favors  the  claim  with  which  the  book  is 
introduced  to  you,  and  bespeaks  from  you  a 
serious  welcome. 

It  may  perchance  be  that  you  do  not  care 
to  know  what  God  desires  to  speak  to  you 

[  7  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

about  this.  You  may  have  no  interest  in 
the  matter,  nor  care  to  be  reminded  of  duty. 
But  surely  if  there  be  a  God  at  all,  the  great 
thing  is  not  so  much  what  you  want  to  hear, 
as  what  He  wants  to  speak.  He  speaks  to 
many  a  man  who  would  rather  not  hear  Him, 
as  responsibility  holds  fast  many  a  man  who 
has  tried  to  escape  it.  To  do  what  one 
would  like  to  do  and  not  what  one  ought  to 
do,  would  be  as  if  in  a  great  business,  the  of- 
fice boy  should  boss  the  manager.  No;  to 
order  life  rightly  is  greater  business  than  to 
have  what  is  pleasant,  and  no  man,  without 
disaster,  can  turn  the  management  of  his 
life  over  to  the  mere  liking  in  him.  For 
somehow  this  sense  of  ought  in  us  fits  in 
with  all  the  things  of  life  and  of  the  world, 
just  as  that  other  sense  which  we  know  as 
sanity  fits  in  without  confusion  with  all 
things.  What  God  has  to  say  always  an- 
swers to  something  that  is  deep  in  us.  It 
never  violates  our  reason  or  our  conscience. 
If  this  little  book  speaks  to  your  conscience 
and  to  your  intelligence,  that  too,  is  proof 
that  it  is  from  God. 

You  may  of  course  now  close  the  book  and 
deliberately  avoid  the  consideration  of  the 

[  8  J 


The  Book  Introduced  to  the  Reader 


whole    matter.      That,    however,    does    not 
change  anything.     It  is  only  as  if  one  closed 


"To  do  what  one  would  like  to  do,  and  not  what  one  ought  to 

do,  would  he  as  if  in  a  great  business,  the  office  boy  should 

boss  the  manager." 

his  eyes  to  things.  The  things  would  not 
change.  We  can  avoid  the  consideration  of 
the  advice  of  the  doctors,  and  the  laws  of  the 
State,  and  the  laws  of  health,  and  the  word 
of  the  Bible,  and  the  claims  of  the  Church, 

[  9  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


and  that  we  are  in  debt,  and  the  judgment  of 
God.     But  to  live  in  disregard  of  these  things 


That  we  keep  ourselves  from  knowing  the  facts  is  no  escape 
from  them.  By  tying  our  eyes  shut  we  can  keep  things  from  be- 
ing seen,  but  it  does  not  change  them,  nor  blot  them  out.  Bet- 
ter a  thousand  times,  a  square  look  at  things  as  they  are,  than 
any  ignoring  them. 

does  not  blot  them  out  of  existence;  it  is  only 
to  keep  them  out  of  sight.  That  the  adul- 
terer does  not  look  within  does  not  make  him 
less  an  adulterer  —  it  only  keeps  him  from 
seeing  himself.  The  mariner  by  ignoring 
the  compass  and  chart,  removes  no  rocks 
from  the  sea.  To  avoid  thinking  about  death 

[  lo  ] 


The  Book  Introduced  to  the  Reader 

does  not  prevent  its  approach.  Not  to  con- 
sider the  claims  of  the  Church  is  to  prove 
none  of  them  untrue  —  it  is  only  to  keep  one 
from  seeing  things  as  they  are.  For  things 
are  as  they  are  and  not  what  anyone  in  his 
unthinking  v^ants  them  to  be.  Thus,  the 
only  safety  lies  in  squarely  facing  them  and 
honestly  considering  them. 


[  II  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  II 

HUMAN  NEED  BRINGS  THE  CHURCH 
INTO  BEING 

The  Church  is  simply  a  group  of  Christian 
persons  organized  for  work.  God  has  a  pur- 
pose that  He  wants  fulfilled  in  the  world.  He 
is  not  a  stupid  manager  who  cannot  see  what 
effort  will  do  —  organized  effort;  can  see  it 
quite  as  well  as  our  captains  of  industry  see 
it.  The  Church  is  here  by  the  same  necessi- 
ty for  those  careful  adjustments  of  each  per- 
son to  the  whole,  that  exists  in  the  army,  in 
business,  in  the  family,  and  in  the  State. 
Whether  it  be  building  a  railroad,  or  found- 
ing a  State,  or  overcoming  an  invader,  the 
prime  necessity  is  that  men  merge  individual 
effort,  get  together,  and  give  each  other  loy- 
alty. The  more  intensely  men  feel  the  pas- 
sion to  get  something  done,  the  more  do  they 
feel  the  necessity  of  getting  together.  Men 
do  not  go  their  separate,  unrelated  ways  in 
an  industry,  nor  in  an  army,  nor  in  a  family, 
nor  in"  a  State.  The  manager  of  a  mill  mar- 
shals every  man,  gives  him  his  place,  and  his 

[    12    ] 


Need  Brings  the  Church  into  Being 

responsibility,  relates  his  effort  to  the  whole 
purpose,  and  sees  that  he  is  productive.  In 
time  of  war,  the  State  is  all  the  closer  or- 
ganized for  effectiveness,  every  man  being 
given  his  station  and  his  work.  On  the 
farm,  the  "hands"  do  not  carry  on  each  a 
separate  and  unrelated  enterprise,  but  order 
their  labor  to  the  common  end.  So  amply 
vindicated  on  every  hand,  it  would  seem  that 
this  same  necessity  for  organization  would 
be  likely  to  be  insisted  upon  all  the  more 
positively  in  the  Church  of  God.  God  asks 
not  only  that  we  serve  Him,  but  that  in  our 
loyalty  we  serve  Him  in  the  manner  in 
which  we  may  accomplish  the  most. 


[  13  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  III 

PUBLIC  CONFESSION   IS  REQUIRED  IN 
OTHER  RELATIONS 

It  is  likely  that  you,  reader,  are  already  try- 
ing to  serve  God.  It  may  be  however,  that 
you  are  trying  to  serve  Him  secretly  and  in- 
dividually. You  attend  church  services, 
you  associate  with  God's  people,  you  have  a 
purpose  to  do  good  works,  you  contribute  to 
the  support  of  the  Church,  you  maintain,  it 
may  be,  the  habit  of  prayer,  and  you  are  try- 
ing to  be  loyal  to  Christ.  But  the  Church 
has  never  countenanced  secret  discipleship. 
It  has  always  insisted  upon  public  confes- 
sion. Christ  himself  insisted  upon  it,  and 
for  the  best  reasons.  If  one  really  desires 
to  work  for  Christ  —  and  without  this  de- 
sire one  cannot  be  a  Christian  —  he  will  be 
impelled  to  join  the  Church  with  the  same  in- 
evitableness  with  which  men  with  a  common 
purpose  come  together  in  a  partnership, 
lovers  in  marriage,  pupils  in  a  school,  and 
soldiers  in  an  army.  And  if  in  a  community 
without  a  Church,  there  were  a  number  of 

[  14  ] 


Public  Confession  Elsewhere 


persons  with  a  common  purpose  to  serve 
Christ,  a  Church  would  inevitably  come  to  be. 
The  Church  is  here  with  the  same  inevitable- 
ness  with  which  the  State  is  here;  it  is  here 
with  the  same  inevitableness  with  which  the 
family  is  here;  it  is  here  with  the  same  in- 
evitableness with  which  organized  business 
is  here;  it  is  here  with  the  same  inevitable- 
ness with  which  the  school  is  here.  A  Church 
is  the  partnership  of  those  in  a  community 
who  are  in  earnest  in  doing  something  for 
Christ. 

First  the  Christian  and  then  the  Church. 
Just  as  first  the  love  and  then  the  marriage. 
Marriage  does  not  make  two  persons  love. 
No;  their  loving  makes  them  be  married. 
Marriage  is  the  expression  of  their  love,  not 
its  cause.  Marriage  is  an  expression  of  love, 
but  why  does  the  State  insist  upon  a  public 
expression  of  it?  Why  may  it  not  be  a  pri- 
vate and  secret  matter  between  the  two  per- 
sons chiefly  concerned  ?  Because  secret  mar- 
riages do  not  hold.  The  fidelity  that  is  only 
secretly  promised,  to  begin  with,  is  not 
hearty — else  it  would  not  ask  concealment — 
slips  into  weakness,  and  then  ceases  to  be. 
The  mere  intention,  if  not  made  definite  and 


[  15 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

a  matter  of  deed,  grows  hazy  and  vague.  We 
understand  this  perfectly  in  business,  where 
in  practice,  —  though  a  man's  intention  and 
word  are  perfectly  honorable  —  that  secret, 
intangible  intention  and  word  are  for  his  own 
better  keeping,  made  to  become  formal  and 
concrete.  Better  that  the  agreement  be  put 
into  writing,  and  become  as  we  say,  "a  bond," 
that  is,  something  that  binds;  or  a  ''deed," 
that  is,  something  done.  Suppose  for  a  mo- 
ment, two  persons  loving  each  other,  only 
secretly  took  the  vows  of  marriage,  and  se- 
cretly became  man  and  wife.  Now  that  se- 
crecy means,  to  begin  with,  that  rather  than 
brave  some  obstacle,  they  will  give  up  their 
love.  There  is  thus  no  real  faithfulness  to 
begin  with.  And  when  this  love  grows  cold, 
and  disagreements  strain  this  secret  bond, 
this  love  does  not  hold.  The  purpose  of  two 
such  persons,  even  though  clear  and  strong 
at  first,  under  the  desire  for  freedom,  grows 
shadowy  and  vague.  Yows  thus  made,  even 
with  elect  persons,  become  much  as  none  at 
all. 

Publicity  in  marriage,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  proof  of  utmost  fidelity  to  begin  with,  tends 
to    keep    marriage  sacred  and  to  make  the 

[  i6  J 


Public  Confession  Elsewhere 


bond  secure.  The  State  knows  this,  and 
compels  publicity  in  marriage.  Secret  mar- 
riage would  mean  not  marriage,  but  free  love. 
A  man's  own  wavering  purpose  is  in  fact  es- 
tablished by  the  expectation  of  the  public. 
His  own  dulled  conscience  is  sharpened  by 
the  conscience  of  the  public.  Even  our 
laws  with  their  penalties,  add  their  whole- 
some restraint.  Many  a  man  sorely  tempted 
to  break  his  marriage  vows,  has  thus  been 
steadied  in  the  day  of  temptation,  who  but 
for  the  restraint  inseparable  from  a  pub- 
lic conscience,  would  have  done  what  would 
have  been  to  his  everlasting  shame.  Save  for 
something  broader  than  individual  whim, 
something  realer  than  secret  intention,  soci- 
ety would  not  hold  together.  In  publicity 
we  put  behind  us  the  stronger  and  realer  con- 
sciousness of  the  community.  The  strong 
bear  the  burdens  of  the  weak. 

Even  our  rationality,  or  sanity,  is  a  com- 
mon standard,  and  is  not  a  thing  isolated 
and  individual.  It  is  something  public,  com- 
munal, and  conjoint.  Cutting  loose  from 
this,  in  that  extreme  individuality  which  is 
more  than  queerness,  one  comes  to  the  in- 
sane asylum.     Conscience  too,  according  to 

[  17  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

its  name  (con — together;  science  —  knowl- 
edge) is  the  standard  of  a  group.  It  is  not 
individual,  but  joint  knowledge.  "No  man 
liveth  unto  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  un- 
to himself."  Together  we  stand,  apart  each 
falls.  Many  a  man  in  the  Church  has  re- 
covered himself  after  the  evil  day,  who  had  he 
been  living  as  a  secret  disciple,  would  have 
permanently  fallen  away.  In  the  Church, 
the  expectation  and  the  faith  of  others  make 
the  wheels  of  purpose  and  love  go  round, 
when  the  power  within  us  for  the  time  has 
failed.  We  recover  ourselves,  and  live  in 
future  time,  to  give,  like  Peter  of  old,  good 
proof  of  our  fidelity. 

Alone,  a  man's  own  purpose  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  becomes  vagrant  and  feeble.  The  ne- 
cessity of  making  public  one's  purpose  to  fol- 
low Christ,  lies  in  the  fact  that  alone  and  in 
secret  a  man  cannot  hold  fast  his  faith. 

Belonging  to  an  army,  many  a  soldier  has 
endured  every  travail,  ^even  weakness  been 
glorified  by  high  loyalty,  who  had  he  been 
fighting  alone  would  have  forsaken  the  cause. 
In  some  evil  day,  his  heart  and  his  flesh  would 
have  failed.  In  actual  experience  even  veteran 
soldiers  are  enrolled  and  are  not  left  to  the 


Public  Confession  Elsewhere 


perils  of  their  own  timorous  caprice.  Great  is 
the  soldier  who  is  caught  up  in  the  established 


"Great  is  the  soldier  who  is  caught  up  in  the  established  and 

common  loyalty  of  his  corps  —  a  bigger  and  an  intenser  thing 

than  his  own  vacillating  weakness." 

and  common  loyalty  of  his  corps,  a  bigger  and 
an  intenser  thing  than  his  own  vacillating 
weakness.  Save  for  this,  few  soldiers  would 
stand.  If  a  nation  should  engage  in  war  on 
the  basis  of  secret  and  individual  soldiering,  it 
by  this  course  would  doom  its  most  right- 
eous cause  and  all  its   agony  of  sacrifice  to 

[  19  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

failure,  while  by  united  action  it  might  bring 
even  a  base  purpose  to  triumph.  The  Church, 
in  insisting  upon  open  and  definite  identifi- 
cation with  it,  does  just  what  the  army  does. 
It  has  the  the  same  serious  earnestness,  it 
knows  the  same  secret,  has  shared  the  same 
experience,  and  has  for  insistence  upon  pub- 
licity the  same  reasons. 

This  is  the  secret  of  all  glorified  life.  In 
the  family  we  put  behind  the  individual,  the 
loyalty  and  love  of  the  group,  and  rest  back 
upon  a  common  strength.  Children  are 
guided  by  a  wisdom  and  will  greater  than 
their  own,  and  but  for  these  they  would  fall 
into  the  ways  of  folly.  Blessed  is  the  hus- 
band to  whose  strength  is  added  the  faith  and 
expectation  of  his  wife,  and  blessed  is  the  fa- 
ther who  in  his  children,  has  high  motive 
to  do  valiantly.  In  turn  they  hope  for  him 
when  he  cannot  hope  for  himself,  and  when 
he  of  himself  would  fall,  they  enable  him  to 
stand.  In  the  school  no  one  pupil  makes  the 
atmosphere  that  broods  the  place  and  cre- 
ates in  the  coldest  a  desire  for  knowledge. 

The  Church  finds  its  power  in  this  same 
mutual  momentum.  Here  the  pull  and  the 
push  of  a  surer  body  is  with  us.     We  get  up- 

[  20  ] 


Public  Confession  Elsewhere 


on  the  mighty  current  of  that  faith  and  hope 
and  love  which  is  the  presence  of  Christ  in 
the  Church.  We  require  in  the  Church  for 
its  success  just  what  we  require  elsewhere, 
and  for  the  same  reasons.  ''Where  the 
Church  is,  there  is  the  Spirit  of  God,"  and  by 
the  same  inevitableness  where  the  Spirit  of 
God  is,  there  the  Church  will  come  into  be- 
ing. It  comes  into  being  with  the  same  cer- 
tainty withwhich  love  brings  the  family  into 
being,  and  a  common  loyalty  the  army.  We 
tie  ourselves  up  to  a  purpose  and  strength 
greater  than  our  own.  We  close  ourselves 
in  by  the  seal  of  a  will  that  is  not  wholly  our 
own;  a  will  as  mighty  as  God's. 

It  is  much  as  shepherds  do  with  their  sheep. 
Sheep  are  weak  and  silly  creatures,  quite  un- 
able to  choose  for  and  to  protect  themselves. 
So  shepherds  put  them  into  the  fold.  There 
they  are  safe.  In  like  manner  do  we  give 
ourselves  over  under  the  will  that  is  not 
wholly  at  the  mercy  of  our  foolish  and  va- 
grant caprice.  In  a  day  of  vision  and  re- 
solve, we  make  the  future  secure  by  delib- 
erately putting  up  bars  against  our  short- 
sighted and  foolish  desires.  We  choose  for 
ourselves  what  the  shepherd  in  his  wisdom 

[   21    ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

chooses  for  his  sheep.      A  sheep    with    the 
shepherd  is  greater  than  the  sheep  without 


He  who  is  seriously  in  earnest,  in  a  day  of  wise  discerning, 

puts  up  harriers  against  any  desire  to  go  back  to  the  way  he 

has  condemned. 

him.  And  a  man  in  the  Church  is  greater 
than  the  man  outside  of  it.  Just  as  a  soldier 
in  the  army  is  greater  than  the  soldier  out- 
side of  it.  Just  as  a  boy  in  a  school  is  greater 
than  the  boy  outside  of  it. 

Serious  minded  and  earnest  persons  will 
not  refuse  to  put  their  safety  above  their  self- 
will  and  pride,  nor  hesitate  to  take  the  great 

[    22    ] 


Public  Confession  Elsewhere 


step  that  will  put  them  upon  a  current, 
which,  mighty  where  their  own  good  motives 
are  but  weak,  will  carry  them  to  God.  This 
is  just  what  becoming  a  member  of  the 
Church  secures  one  in,  just  as  becoming  a 
soldier  in  an  army  lifts  one  into  a  man  great- 
er than  otherwise  he  could  be. 


[  23  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  IV 

JOINING  THE  CHURCH  EXALTS  A  DELIBER- 
ATE CONCLUSION  AS  OVER  AGAINST 
MERE  CIRCUMSTANCE  OR  CAPRICE 

The  restraint  involved  in  this  absorption 
into  a  firmer  w^ill  is  good,  and  is  no  greater  in 
the  Church  than  it  is  elsew^here.  Restraint 
is  the  necessary  good  thing  in  every  relation. 
By  it  we  shift  from  the  basis  of  what  we  want 
to  do,  to  the  basis  of  what  we  ought  to  do, 
and  from  the  basis  of  mere  caprice  to  the 
basis  of  deliberate  and  far-sighted  purpose. 
We  put  ourselves  under  it  in  school,  and  take 
as  the  pupil's  greatest  privilege  the  restraint 
the  teacher  is  to  us.  To  do  there  as  we  please 
would  annul  the  value  of  the  school,  place 
us  at  the  mercy  of  our  ignorance  and  caprice, 
and  set  us  adrift  in  lawless  ways.  When  you 
do  not  rob  a  man  you  have  but  put  restraint 
upon  yourself,  and  done,  not  what  you  might 
prefer  to  do,  but  what  you  ought  to  do. 
Restraint  is  the  bar  we  put  up  in  marriage 
against  our  wayward  affections,  and  by  it 
we  are  kept  in  the  evil  day.     In  all  govern- 

[  24  ] 


Exalts  Purpose  Over  Mere  Caprice 


ment  we  voluntarily  put  restraint  upon  our- 
selves, and  hedge  ourselves  about  by  con- 


"When  you  do  not  rob  a  man  you  have  but  put  restraint  upon 

yourself,  and   done,  not  what  you   might  prefer   to   do,  but 

what  you  ought  to  do." 

stitution  and  law^.  Indeed,  the  v^hole  prog- 
ress of  the  race  is  measured  by  its  self-im- 
posed restrictions. 

Restraint  at  any  rate  is  laid  upon  us  by 
the  will  of  God,  and  whether  or  not  we  al- 
low His  will  to  be  ours,  His  sway  is  over 
us.  We  have  no  right  to  a  freedom  that  is 
larger  than  the  freedom  that  is  ours  when  we 

[  25  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

come  into  fellowship  with  Christ  and  enter 
into  the  fold  of  the  Church.  Anything  taken 
that  this  disallows  is  taken  in  license  and  is 
not  lawful,  and  is  here  the  same  crazy  will 
that  licentiousness  is  elsewhere.  When  we 
are  rich  in  wisdom  and  faith,  on  that  high 
day  when  the  glory  of  God's  purpose  for  us 
shines  within  us  —  a  day  whose  clear  bright- 
ness does  not  always  shine  —  on  that  great 
day,  by  a  public  profession  of  our  purpose  of 
loyalty,  we  bind  ourselves  under  the  restraint 
of  the  common  conscience,  and  are  drawn  up 
by  the  pull  of  it  to  a  personal  conscious  fel- 
lowship with  God.  Just  as  the  child  takes 
with  gladness  the  parent's  love,  and  the  sol- 
dier takes  the  spirit  and  discipline  of  the 
army,  and  the  husband  the  restraint  it  is 
even  his  delight  to  feel;  and  just  as  even  the 
colt,  surrendering  its  wild  will  to  its  master, 
lives  to  know  higher  delights  than  any  of- 
fered by  its  untamed  nature, — just  so  every- 
where the  laying  restraint  upon  our  affec- 
tions and  wills  in  accord  with  the  Christian 
conscience  and  our  own  deliberate  purpose, 
is  the  way  to  greatness. 

It  is  a  great  day  when  the  child  is  born 
under  that  love,  and  a  great  day  when  the 

[  26] 


Exalts  Purpose  Over  Mere  Caprice 

pupil  enters  the  school,  and  a  great  day  when 
the  man  vows  his  faithfulness  in  marriage, 
and  a  great  day  when  the  outlaw  becomes  a 
citizen,  and  a  great  day  when  whosoever  will 
comes  to  Christ  and  into  the  Church  of 
Christ.  He  is  in  real  earnest  in  the  great 
business  of  life,  and  will  not  shrink  from  the 
step  that  binds  him  under  the  good  purpose 
that  today  is  begot  in  him.  It  will  seem  to 
him  only  real  wisdom,  if  having  got  across 
into  this  good  country,  he  burn,  against  the 
danger  of  disgraceful  retreat,  all  bridges  be- 
hind him.  That  man  can  hardly  be  in  ear- 
nest, who  taking  up  the  cross  of  Christ,  will 
make  sure  that  there  be  for  him  a  way  by 
which  he  can  back  out  if  such  vagrant  desire 
should  tempt  him,  like  the  man  in  the  Gos- 
pel, who,  putting  his  hand  to  the  plough, 
looks  back  where  his  heart  is.  A  man  who  is 
as  divided  as  that,  however  he  may  say  his  se- 
cret purpose  to  himself,  is  simply  not  fit  for 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  He  is  not  fit,  because 
being  divided  and  not  loyal,  he  is  not  in  ear- 
nest, is  insincere  and  counterfeit,  and 
will  not  endure.  He  who  will  not  let 
his  marriage  be  known  is  doubtless  thinking 
he  may  want  the  release  to  which  publicity 

[  27  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

will  stand  in  the  way.  His  love  is  not  en- 
tire, not  genuine,  and  is  not  love.  He  who 
wants  to  fight  as  an  independent  soldier,  is 
doubtless  thinking  he  may  want  to  desert 
the  cause  and  go  home.  He  is  putting  some- 
thing before  love  of  country.  The  really 
earnest  disciple  will  bind  himself  with  a  thou- 
sand bonds  if  only  thereby  his  wayward,  un- 
certain self  can  be  bound  fast.  The  true 
lover  will  pledge  his  troth  "in  the  sight  of 
God  and  in  the  face  of  this  company,"  if  on- 
ly that  will  establish  his  heart  against  the 
thought  of  evil.  Just  so  in  business,  a  really 
honest  man  in  the  day  of  his  calm  intention, 
puts  a  bond  as  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  any 
persuasion  to  dishonesty  in  the  evil  day. 
When  a  man  openly  confesses  Christ,  and 
by  uniting  with  the  Church,  binds  himself 
fast  to  a  stronger  purpose  and  love  than  his 
own,  we  know  that  he  means  something. 
Undivided,  and  the  whole  way  through  loy- 
al to  Christ,  he,  by  the  faith  that  holds  when 
his  own  fails,  will  endure  through  all  trial 
and  to  the  end. 

Once  taken,  such  a  firm  decided  stand  is 
of  immense  value  to  one  in  dealing  with 
himself.     Save  for  some  such  decisive  step, 

\  28  1 


Exalts  Purpose  Over  Mere  Caprice 

sealing  the  purpose  once  for  all  and  setting 
the  momentum  of  high  action  going,  one 
raises  again  and  again  the  question  of  "which 
side?",  goes  again  and  again  in  debate  over 
the  same  ground,  fights  the  same  unslain 
enemies  again  and  again,  and  in  vacillation 
is  at  the  mercy  of  whatever  caprice  can  pre- 
vail. Taking  no  open  decisive  stand,  we  do 
not  stay  put  in  one  place,  do  not  belong  to 
either  side,  vacillate  back  and  forth  in  inde- 
cision, put  off  and  put  off  the  taking  that 
first  and  open  step  which  making  an  end  of 
wavering,  starts  one  under  mighty  impulse, 
at  the  real  beginning  of  the  way  to  God.  We 
easily  fall  away  from  the  choice  we  have  not 
openly  expressed  and  sealed.  Made  only 
mentally,  a  choice  is  so  lightly  made  as  to 
leave  little  or  no  trace  of  its  having  been 
made  at  all.  Our  secret  vows  are  lightly 
kept.  Private,  secret  promises,  proclaim  their 
futility  in  all  the  unredeemed  hidden  pledges 
with  which  many  a  past  is  full.  On  the  con- 
trary in  joining  the  Church,  we  have  had 
not  a  mere  emotion  for  a  beautiful  deed  — 
we  have  instead  done  a  deed,  and  under  cir- 
cumstances of  such  high  moment,  that  an 
actual  rut,  with  depth  and  length,  is  made  on 

[  29  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

the  brain.  The  purpose  is  now  committed 
to  even  a  physical  basis.  It  is  on  the  brain 
as  truly  as  a  rut  is  in  a  road.  A  secret, 
private  resolve,  on  the  other  hand,  having  no 
such  advantage,  fades  quickly  out  of  the 
memory.  It  has  made  no  impression,  has 
left  no  trace  of  itself  —  is  much  as  if  it  had 
not  been  at  all. 


30 


Does  Not  Create  Obligation 


CHAPTER  V 

JOINING  THE  CHURCH  DOES  NOT  CREATE 
OBLIGATIONS— IT  RECOGNIZES  THE  OB- 
LIGATIONS THAT  ALREADY  EXIST 

It  is  however  the  strictness  of  obligation 
inseparable  from  an  open  identification  with 
the  Church,  that  is  to  some  the  objection  to 
membership  in  it.  Many  persons  feel  that 
outside  of  the  membership  of  the  Church 
they  have  a  right  to  do  what  they  could  not 
do  if  they  were  members  of  it. 

It  is  of  course  a  fallacy.  No  man's 
acknowledging  a  thing  to  be  obligatory  is 
what  makes  it  obligatory.  Duty  is  not  made 
by  recognizing  it  any  more  than  the  sun  is 
made  by  beholding  it.  The  laws  of  health,  for 
example,  are  bars  put  up  against  us,  and 
much  as  we  desire  to  have  it  otherwise,  we 
have  here  no  liberty  to  claim.  The  Ten  Com- 
mandments are  laws  just  as  much  to  those 
who  reject  them  as  to  those  who  acknowl- 
edge them,  just  as  poison  acts  with  the  same 
deadliness  upon  those  who  do  not  know  that 
it  will  kill,  as  it  does    upon    those   who    do. 

[  31  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

Gravitation  is  not  made  operative  by  our 
knowing  the  lav^  of  its  working.  Fire  burns 
whether  the  child  knows  it  or  not;  its  burn- 
ing does  not  depend  upon  his  knowing. 
Those  who  do  not  promise  to  follow  Christ 
are  under  obligation  to  follow  Him.  Is  a 
citizen  free  to  break  law  if  only  he  does  not 
promise  not  to  break  law?  He  who  has  not 
promised  not  to  steal,  is  he  free  to  steal? 
His  promising  to  keep  himself  pure,  is  this 
what  obliges  a  man  to  be  pure?  Is  a  man 
free  to  get  drunk  if  only  he  has  not  signed 
the  pledge?  Ah  no.  Signing  a  pledge  is  a 
recognition  of  the  obligation  of  temperance 
already  existing;  it  is  not  what  creates  the 
obligation.  And  breaking  a  pledge  is  not 
the  only  sin.  Indeed  to  break  it  may  be  no 
more  wicked  than  not  to  take  it. 

Let  us  not  be  deceived  about  this.  The 
promises  we  make  when  we  come  into  the 
Church  are  not  what  create  obligation. 
These  promises  are  a  recognition  of  and  a 
confession  of  obligations  that  already  exist. 
They  exist  even  if  they  are  not  recognized. 
For  obligation  is  made  not  by  promises  given, 
but  by  benefits,  talents,  capacities,  powers, 
received.    If  you  can  show  the  court  that  the 

[  32  ] 


Does  Not  Create  Obligation 


complainant  gave  you  nothing  in  exchange 
for  the  note  he  claims  is  your  promise  to  pay, 
no  court  will  give  him  judgment  against  you. 
If  in  your  absence  from  your  house,  another 
moves  in  and  occupies  it,  even  though  he  has 
never  agreed  to  pay  you  anything,  you  can 
collect  from  him  according  to  reasonable 
equity,  a  just  and  fair  rent.  Agreeing  to  pay 
is  not  what  makes  financial  obligatioUc  It 
is  a  fair  presumption  of  one's  having  received 
value.  But  if  you  lose  your  debtor's  note, 
and  no  promise  of  his  to  pay  can  be  proved, 
you  can  without  doubt  get  judgment,  if  it 
can  be  proved  that  the  claim  covers  services 
you  rendered. 

Accepting  responsibility  is  not  what  makes 
responsibility.  Promising  to  do  right  is  not 
what  puts  one  under  obligation  to  do  right. 
Men  are  not  free  to  do  as  they  please,  if  only 
they  have  not  named  the  name  of  Christ.  Do 
you  think  that  Herod,  by  setting  Christ  at 
naught,  freed  himself  of  all  responsibility? 

Does  God,  do  you  think,  have  to  wait  till 
we  acknowledge  His  law  to  have  authority 
over  us  ?  Will  He  judge  only  those  who  con- 
fess Him  ?  Or  will  he  rather  judge  the  whole 
world?     Will  He  judge  the  Church  by  a  dif- 

[  33  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

ferent  standard  from  that  by  which  he  judges 
the  world?  If  wishing  could  do  so  much,  it 
might  be  expected  that  it  could  make  the 
scales  weigh  as  we  would.  But  they  weigh 
according  to  great  gravitation,  and  not  ac- 
cording to  our  wishing.  Do  you  think  Peter 
was  more  guilty  for  denying  Christ  after  he 
became  a  disciple,  than  Pilate  was  for  deny- 
ing Him  once  for  all  by  not  becoming  a  dis- 
ciple? Is  a  son  who  sometimes  grieves  his 
father  at  home,  more  guilty  than  a  son  who 
once  for  all,  denies  his  father  by  running 
away?  Surely  the  pupil's  willingness  that 
the  teacher  rule  is  not  what  invests  the  teach- 
er with  his  authority.  Surely  in  the  form- 
er time  it  was  not  the  slave's  consent 
that  gave  the  master  ownership.  Indeed 
we  are  so  little  our  own  that  about  many 
things  we  have  nothing  to  say;  in  spite  of 
our  protest  death  comes  and  takes  us.  All 
alike  are  under  the  law  of  Christ,  they  who  do 
not  believe  on  Him  as  surely  as  those  who  do. 
Unbelief,  —  the  denial  of  responsibility  —  so 
far  from  setting  us  free  from  obligation,  is 
the  sin  that  includes  all  other  sins.  He  who 
by  one  deliberate  denial  once  for  all  rejects 
Christ,  is  by  that  unbelief,  chief  of  sinners. 

t   34  ] 


Does  Not  Create  Obligation 


So  far  from  its  being  a  freedom  from  respon- 
sibility, unbelief  is  just  the  thing  for  which 
one  is  responsible. 

One  is  responsible  for  his  unbelief.  This 
is  Christ's  teaching.  He  says  of  the  Spirit, 
"he,  when  he  is  come,  will  convict  the  world 

in  respect  of  sin, of  sin,  because  they 

believe  not  on  me."  ^ 

The  good  man  who  threw  himself  into  the 
water  to  save  the  child,  though  he  failed  to 
save  him,  is  yet  greater  than  he  who  from  his 
place  of  safety,  would  not  see  his  responsi- 
bility nor  attempt  a  rescue.  He  who  did  not 
try  to  save  the  child  is  guilty  with  a  black- 
ness no  failure  of  him  who  tried  to  do  his 
duty  can  deserve.  It  is  one  thing  to  do  un- 
worthily in  the  Church,  but  it  is  a  grosser  sin 
not  to  attempt  that  fellowship  at  all.  Let  no 
one  be  deceived  about  that.  The  responsi- 
bility of  him  who  believes,  is  great,  but  if  he 
has  failed,  it  is  only  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  the  task  he  honestly  tried  to  do.  But  the 
responsibility  of  the  unbeliever  is  even  great- 
er, because  he  does  not  try,  does  not  even 
consider  the  matter,  nor  put  forth  effort.  The 
one  will  recover  himself,  his  lapse  is  only  for 

ijohn  i6:    8,  9. 

[  35  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

the  time.  The  other  can  never  succeed,  be- 
cause he  does  not  really  begin. 

To  try  and  yet  to  fail  is  certainly  no  such 
dishonor  to  the  Church  as  is  that  he  brings 
to  it  who  never  gives  it  the  honor  of  an 
effort.  He  v^ho  v^ill  not  in  some  way  serve 
his  country,  is  disloyal  as  he  cannot  be,  who 
as  a  soldier,  one  day  against  strong  forces, 
yields  ground  to  the  enemy.  The  drunkard 
who,  trying  to  overcome  his  fault,  yet  breaks 
his  pledge,  is  a  greater  man  than  he  who  be- 
set by  the  same  weakness,  never  feels  the  ob- 
ligation of  temperance,  nor  seriously  tries  to 
overcome  at  all.  For  an  army  to  retreat, 
having  once  gone  forward,  is  surely  better 
than  for  another  army  in  sheer  disloyalty 
not  to  have  attempted  to  go  forward  at  all. 
Thinking  carries  with  it  doing,  and  so  much 
so  that  one  is  responsible  for  what  he  thinks, 
same  as  the  sower  is  responsible  for  the  seed 
he  sows. 

The  influence  then,  that  does  the  greater 
injury  to  the  Church  and  the  cause  of  Christ, 
is  not  the  seeming  failures  of  those  who  con- 
fess faith  in  Christ;  it  is  rather  the  influence 
of  those  who  never  believe  in  Christ  so  much 
as  to  confess  faith  in  Him.      Fearing  lest 

[  36  ] 


Does  Not  Create  Obligation 


they  might  dishonor  the  Church  if  they 
should  join  it  and  then  prove  unfaithful,  they 
by  standing  apart,  really  exert  an  influence 
against  the  Church,  such  as  they  could  not  in 
the  other  way.  By  one  first  denial  they  re- 
fuse all  allegiance  and  service.  By  never 
attempting,  the}^  fail  as  they  v^ho  honestly 
try  cannot.  They  who  sow  not  good  seed, 
have  already  failed  by  the  sowing  they  have 
made.  For  as  the  sowing  carries  with  it  its 
kind  of  harvest,  so  the  thinking  or  believing 
carries  with  it  its  kind  of  conduct. 

So  far  from  its  excusing  a  man,  unbelief 
is  the  great  sin.  It  is  the  great  sin  of  the 
Bible.  It  includes  all  other  sins.  The  great 
virtue  of  the  Bible,  including  in  it  actual 
righteousness,  is  faith,  belief.  He  who 
does  not  acknowledge  Christ  at  all,  de- 
nies him  as  one  who  merely  stumbles  in  fol- 
lowing him  never  can.  He  who  does  not 
confess  him  is  guilty  with  a  guilt  that  never 
can  be  his  who,  confessing  him,  is  not  yet 
made  perfect.  He  who  does  not  begin  to 
follow  has  failed  with  a  failure  that  is  al- 
ready complete;  he  who  has  begun  to  follow, 
given  time,  will  come  to  the  full  glory  of 
Christ.     The  former  has  denied  Christ  with 

[  37  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

full  deliberateness  and  from  principle;  the 
latter  has  onlv  stumbled  as  he  has  tried  to 


"He  who  does  not  try  to  learn,  has  already  dishonored  knowl- 
edge, as  he  who  trying  to  learn,  though  he  does  not  excel,  never 
can  dishonor  it" 

keep  step  with  the  Infinite.  He  who  does 
not  try  to  learn,  has  already  dishonored 
knowledge,  as  he  who  trying  to  learn,  though 
he  does  not  excel,  never  can  dishonor  it. 


38 


Public  Confession  a  Great   Service 


CHAPTER  VI 

TO    CONFESS    CHRIST    IS    PERHAPS    THE 
GREATEST  SERVICE  ONE  CAN  RENDER 

By  publicly  confessing  Christ  one  gives 
w^itness  for  Him.  It  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
service  one  can  render.  For  men  are  per- 
suaded by  the  testimony  of  other  men,  and 
upon  that  testimony  Christ  relies.  When 
this  v^itness  becomes  at  all  general,  it  is  very 
powerful.  Few^  things  one  can  do  could  car- 
ry the  v^eight  of  persuasion  that  is  carried 
by  the  w^itness  he  gives  v^ho  openly  and  pub- 
licly takes  his  stand  for  Christ.  In  that, 
heart  appeals  to  heart,  conviction  to  convic- 
tion, and  courage  to  courage.  Enlistments 
in  an  army  w^ill  languish  w^here  no  one  is  en- 
listing, but  w^here  brave  men  are  offering 
their  lives,  bravery  is  begotten.  Where 
young  men  are  going  to  college,  it  w^ill  be 
certain  that  other  young  men  v\^ill  go.  The 
earnest  faith  of  those  w^ho  by  martyrdom 
bare  v^ritness  to  Christ,  has  been  compelling 
pov^er  in  every  high  day  in  the  Church.  The 
influence  of  man  v^ith  man,  and  life  upon 

[  39  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

life,  is  one  of  the  greatest  facts,  and  is  ground 
for  one  of  the  greatest  of  responsibilities. 
Christ  asks  that  we  confess  Him.  He  laid 
the  very  heaviest  of  dooms  upon  him  who 
should  deny  Him.  He  trusts  us  by  our  con- 
fessing Him  to  show  our  loyalty  to  Him. 
So  important  is  that  witness,  that  he  depends 
upon  it  for  the  increase  of  his  Kingdom. 

By  our  silence  here  we  are  in  the  same 
way  witnessing  against  Christ,  and  by  our 
denial  confirming  others  in  their  unbelief. 
We  are  making  indifference  and  denial  popu- 
lar. Against  that  flood  of  witness  in  any 
place  the  Church  of  Christ  can  hardly  make 
its  way.  This  is  not  mere  fancy.  If  you 
look  into  your  own  case,  you  will  doubtless 
find  that  one  great  hindrance  to  your  own 
belief  and  to  a  right  decision  in  the  matter 
of  joining  the  Church,  is  the  attitude  of 
others.  They  overwhelm  your  good  inten- 
tions; they  give  their  vote  against  the  Lord 
you  would  like  to  acknowledge.  If  He  were 
owned  as  Lord  by  the  many,  you  too  would 
be  persuaded  to  confess  Him. 

And  as  they  thus  hold  you  back  by  their 
denial,  so  you  are  holding  others  back  by 
yours.     It  is  the  wrong  side  to  be  on;  it  is 

[  40  ] 


Public  Confession  a  Great  Service 

indeed  as  definite  and  as  active  a  disloyalty 
as  one  could  be  guilty  of.  If  you  bravely 
bore  your  witness  for  Christ,  this  would  be 
the  utmost  you  could  do  —  a  thing  at  which 
the  very  angels  and  not  a  few  men  would  re- 
joice. You  would  without  doubt  be  draw- 
ing after  you  the  others  whom  until  now,  you 
have  been  confirming  in  their  unbelief,  and 
thus  there  be  set  through  this  act  of  yours, 
a  tide  of  faith  which  would  bear  on  it  many 
and  many  into  the  fellowship  of  Christ.  To 
confess  Him  is  a  thing  so  great  that  Christ 
could  promise  the  greatest  reward  for  its 
faithful  doing;  failure  here  is  a  thing  so  great 
that  He  could  do  no  other  than  declare  upon 
it  the  greatest  doom. 

This  is  about  the  only  way  one  can  offset 
his  useless  or  his  evil  past,  and  secure  his 
redemption.  ''He  who  converteth  a  sinner 
from  the  error  of  his  ways,  shall  save  a  soul 
from  death,  and  shall  cover  a  multitude  of 
sins." 

But  while  he  who  does  not  believe  is  re- 
sponsible for  his  imbelief,  he  who  does  not 
act  out  his  belief  nor  do  what  he  approves, 
needs  to  think  what  it  is  he  is  doing.  For 
he,  who  in  not  confessing  Christ  pretends  to 

[  41   ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

an  unbelief  that  is  not  really  his,  is  exactly 
the  same  kind  of  a  hypocrite  as  is  he  who  in 
confessing  Christ,  pretends  to  a  belief  that  is 
not  his.  For  the  believer  to  hide  his  faith 
in  a  closet  because  he  is  afraid  of  the  dis- 
pleasure of  unbelieving  men,  is  just  as  bad 
as  for  one  who  does  not  believe  to  pretend  to 
a  loyalty  he  does  not  have  —  praying  make- 
believe  prayers  on  the  street  —  because  he  is 
afraid  of  the  displeasure  of  believing  men. 
The  one  is  as  real  a  hypocrite  as  the  other. 


42 


Who  Are  Fit  for  Church-Membership 

CHAPTER  VII 
WHO  ARE  FIT  FOR  CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 

The  Church  makes  no  claim  to  be  only  for 
perfect  persons.  Just  as  a  school  does  not 
claim  to  be  for  fully  educated  persons,  and 
an  army  only  for  victors.  The  school  is  for 
learners;  and  the  army  is  for  soldiers.  One 
who  will  confess  Christ  as  Lord  —  that  is, 
as  one  who  shall  command  the  life  —  has  just 
the  necessary  fitness  for  the  Church.  He 
needs  no  other  preparation.  It  is  the  glory 
of  the  Church  that  even  the  weak  in  the  faith 
are  received.  The  Church  supplies  not  en- 
joyment for  a  select  group  of  perfect  per- 
sons —  there  would  be  small  need  of  the 
Church  by  such  —  the  Church  is  a  fellowship 
of  imperfect  persons,  who  with  faith  in  Christ 
in  their  hearts,  are,  under  the  headship  of 
Christ,  helping  each  other  to  keep  that  faith, 
and  are  trying  to  spread  it  into  the  great 
world  where  they  live.  The  strong  bear  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak.  The  whole  main- 
tains a  common  faith  and  a  common  charac- 
ter, and  in  consequence,  each  becomes  more 

I    43   ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

than  himself  and  partakes  of  the  character  of 
the  whole.  That  faith  and  that  character 
keep  true  in  spite  of  the  lapse  of  any  one. 
And  that  is  why  membership  in  the  Church 
has  always  been  said  to  carry  salvation  with 
it.  Membership  in  the  Church  does  carry 
salvation  with  it.  That  is  just  the  great- 
ness of  it.  Its  head  being  Christ,  the  very 
spirit  of  Christ  is  in  it.  Christ  is  not  all  in 
each  one;  but  He  is  all  in  the  all  which  is 
the  Church. 

There  would  be  no  need  of  a  Church  if  a 
person  could  alone  overcome  and  triumph. 
Nor,  then,  would  there  be  any  needy  per- 
sons. On  the  other  hand,  nothing  could 
better  meet  the  needs  of  men  as  we  find  them, 
than  the  Church,  which  taking  the  feeble 
faith  most  men  have,  plants  it  in  the  climate 
and  soil  of  that  fellowship  which  St.  Paul 
calls  "the  body  of  Christ."  For  the  Church 
to  insist  upon  perfection  as  a  condition  for 
membership  would  be  as  if  the  school  re- 
ceived as  pupils  only  those  who  had  learned 
already  and  alone  the  very  things  pupils  can- 
not learn  alone,  but  for  the  teaching  of  which 
the  school  exists. 

One  need  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  risk 

[  44  ] 


Who  Are  Fit  for  Church-Membership 

his  weakness  and  instability  with  the  Church 
out  of  fear  lest  some  lapse  of  his,  bring  re- 
proach upon  the  cause  of  Christ.  God  is  not 
so  jealous  of  His  majesty  that  to  keep  it 
from  danger  He  will  let  go  His  whole  pur- 
pose to  save  men.  His  Church  is  not  so 
falsely  holy  that  He  cannot  use  it  for  the  sav- 
ing of  souls.  He  is  not  like  one,  who  because 
his  house  is  so  fine,  and  in  order  to  avoid  risk 
of  dirt,  keeps  his  children  in  the  barn.  No 
indeed.  What  must  invite  one,  is  the  little 
preparation  Christ  required  of  those  he  ad- 
mitted into  his  fellowship,  and  the  little  He 
is  satisfied  with  as  the  fitness  for  member- 
ship in  the  Church.  One  would  be  sure  to 
be  wider  of  the  mark  in  requiring  much,  than 
in  requiring  little,  and  all  the  fear  lest  one  be 
not  fitted,  is  likely  but  the  setting  up  of  a 
barrier  for  which  Christ  gives  no  warrant. 

The  fitness  for  Church  membership  is  not 
goodness.  The  feeling  "I  am  not  good 
enough,"  in  so  far  as  it  proves  a  person  to 
have  a  lowly  thought  of  himself,  is  evidence 
of  choice  fitness.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
who  should  come  with  positive  confidence 
that  now  he  had  got  ready  and  was  fit  for 
the  Church,  would  bring  evidence  of  a  very 

[  45  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

doubtful  fitness.  Whom  Christ  would  re- 
ceive, Christ's  Church  would  hardly  be  war- 
ranted in  turning  away,  and  in  Christ's  para- 
ble the  publican's  ''God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner,"  is  made  ample  justification.  Touch- 
ing our  coming  to  Christ,  we  need  no  elabo- 
rate get-ready;  all  the  fitness  we  require  is 
to  feel  the  need  of  Him. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  sense  of  de- 
fect is  a  sign  of  moral  health.  For  compared 
with  the  holiness  of  God,  there  is  in  ever)^ 
one  of  us,  sure  to  be  defect.  Whether  we 
have  a  sense  of  it  or  not,  the  fact  is,  we  are  all 
sinners.  The  great  saints,  seeing  things  in 
the  light  of  Christ  and  as  they  are,  have  al- 
ways had  a  sense  of  defect.  Not  to  have  it  is 
rather  a  bad  sign.  For  it  shows  a  blindness 
to  one's  real  moral  condition.  This  is  a  se- 
rious thing.  For  he  who  sees  nothing  wrong 
with  himself,  when  that  wrong  exists,  can 
never  get  right,  and  can  grow  no  more. 

After  all,  what  commends  us  to  God  is  not 
an  achieved  righteousness,  but  that  faith  in 
Christ,  which  makes  one  feel  his  unworthi- 
ness.  That  faith,  like  a  good  tree  bearing 
fruit,  in  due  time  produces  righteousness. 
The  sense  of  defect  in  us,  driving  us  to  de- 

[  46  ] 


Who  Are  Fit  for  Church-Membership 

pend  upon  Another,  is  well-pleasing  to  God. 
Being  promise  of  both  our  correction  and  our 
growth,  it  makes  us  acceptable  to  Him. 

If  on  the  other  hand,  one  by  his  "I  am  not 
good  enough,"  means  that  his  heart  and  dis- 
position are  not  right,  that  he  cherishes  and 
prefers  some  evil,  that  he  holds  out  in  some 
thing  against  doing  what  he  approves,  or 
allows  himself  to  do  what  he  condemns,  or 
that  he  dodges  where  he  ought  to  stand  up- 
right, then  deliberately  to  hold  fast  to  that, 
is  proof  of  a  most  dangerous  state  of  will. 
Of  course  such  a  person  is  not  fit  for  the 
Church.  But  that  does  not  do  away  with  the 
responsibility;  it  simply  shifts  the  first  step 
elsewhere.  To  die  of  one  disease  is  poor 
safety  from  not  dying  of  another.  To  argue 
that  because  one  does  not  believe  on  Christ, 
one  has  no  responsibility  for  confessing  Him, 
is  as  if  one  should  plead  he  could  not  have 
robbed  the  bank  because  at  that  time  he  was 
elsewhere  committing  murder.  Not  to  be 
fit  for  the  Church  is  no  excuse  for  not  be- 
coming fit;  it  simply  shifts  responsibility  to 
the  becoming  fit. 

Not  to  have  taken  the  first  step  one  ought 
to  take,  does  not  excuse  one  from  all  qther 

[  47  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

steps.  Not  to  have  taken  the  first  step  in 
the  way  of  Christ,  makes  one  guilty  for  all 
the  other  steps  which  in  consequence  of  that 
neglect  have  not  been  taken.  "I  never 
learned  to  read"  is  no  discharge  of  all  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  intelligence.  One  is  pre- 
sumed in  law  to  intend  all  the  natural  con- 
sequences of  his  acts.  Not  to  believe  on 
Christ  is  a  sowing  that  bears  a  whole  harvest 
of  iniquities,  just  as  intemperance  carries 
with  it  responsibility  for  all  that  enormity  of 
evil  fruitage  which  intemperance  bears. 

Fitness  for  church-membership,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  is  not  agreement  with  all 
others  in  doctrine.  The  Church  is  rather  a 
brotherhood  in  service.  It  has  one  Lord,  it 
has  one  faith  in  Him,  it  has  one  baptism  or 
door  of  entrance  into  His  body.  Its  bond  is 
love  —  that  partnership  in  work  which  is  the 
doing  good  to  all  men.  He  who  wants  to 
work  for  Christ  and  His  Kingdom,  is  by  that 
purpose  qualified  for  admission  into  the 
Church.  That  presupposes  loyalty,  the  best 
kind  of  faith.  It  is  better  than  a  knowledge 
that  is  without  passion  for  service  and  feels 
no  sense  of  the  world's  need.  For  one's 
faith  is  in  what  he  works  for  and  puts  his 

[  48  ] 


Who  Are  Fit  for  Church-Membership 

money  into.      There  may  be,  reader,  some 
things  you  do  not  believe.     Here  is  some- 


The  drunkard  in  getting  drunk,  became  guilty  of  the  murder 

he  committed  when  drunk.    In  the  failure  to   begin  rightly 

was  already  the  failure  of  his  end. 

thing  you  want  to  help  to  do.  And  that  is 
better  than  a  passionless  agreement  with 
others  on  points  of  doctrine.  In  the  Church 
you  work  with  others  under  the  leadership 
of  Christ. 

[  49  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

CHAPTER  VIII 

SAINTS  OUTSIDE  THE  CHURCH 

In  considering  the  claims  of  the  Church,  one 
may  find  himself  reflecting  that  he  outside 
of  it,  is  as  good  as  many  another  within  it. 
And  that  may  be  true.  And  it  may  seem  to 
him  to  be  reason  for  continuance  in  his  pres- 
ent way. 

But  may  be  he  ought  to  be  better  than 
these  others  are.  They  have  come  up  out  of 
an  evil  past,  or  it  may  be  that  they,  after  all, 
are  earnest  persons  who  beginning  at  a  low 
point,  are,  in  spite  of  their  stumbling,  going 
in  the  right  direction.  God  does  not  judge 
us  one  by  another,  which  one  can  see  would 
be  no  more  fair  in  the  matter  of  achievement 
than  it  would  be  in  the  matter  of  stature. 
God  judges  each  man  by  the  man's  own  self. 
Some  men  who  drink  whiskey  may  yet  do 
more  work  than  some  other  man  who  ab- 
stains. But  this  does  not  prove  that  drink 
is  better  than  abstinence  for  any  man.  Some- 
one apart  from  the  schools  may  get  a  better 
education  than  someone  else  gets  through 

[  50  ] 


Saints  Outside  the  Church 


the  schools.  But  this  does  not  prove  that 
the  self-made  man  would  not  have  done  even 
better  with  the  opportunities  of  the  schools. 
The  question  for  one  to  consider,  is  not 
whether  he  out  of  the  Church,  is  as  good  as 
some  other  in  it,  but  whether  he,  out  of  it,  is 
as  good  as  he  himself  would  be  in  it.  The 
commendation  Christ  gave  to  Mary  for  a 
deed  so  perfect  as  to  be  the  type  and  memo- 
rial of  all  loyalty,  was  not  that  she  had  done 
as  well  as  someone  else,  but  that  she  had  done 
what  she  could.  If  a  man  does  so  well  out- 
side of  the  Church,  it  is  fair  to  believe  that  in 
it  he  would  serve  with  a  faithfulness  that 
would  endow  him  with  new  greatness  and 
rival  the  glory  of  those  in  the  Church,  who 
are  above  reproach.  He,  joining  hands  with 
others  in  the  open  acknowledgement  of 
Christ  and  in  the  partnership  of  a  loyal  ser- 
vice, is  certainly  a  different  kind  of  a  man 
than  he  who  can  be  satisfied  if  only  he  is  as 
good  as  the  weakest  in  the  Church.  He  who 
is  so  little  in  earnest  as  to  try  to  get  off  with 
a  service  whose  faultiness  can  be  compared 
only  to  that  of  the  most  faulty  in  the  Church, 
is  unworthy  to  be  compared  even  to  him  who 
is  least  in  the  Church. 

[  51  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

For  in  spite  of  the  implication,  the  weak 
brother  in  the  Church  has  not  failed.  The 
heart  of  the  Gospel  is,  that  it  is  a  man's  faith 
in  Christ  that  saves  him  and  not  his  deeds  — 
just  as  the  good  tree  is  already  guarantee  of 
good  fruit.  As  the  greatest  thing  about  the 
good  harvest  is  the  choice  of  good  seed,  so 
the  greatest  thing  about  a  good  life  is  the 
choice  of  good  principles.  If  one  has  the 
love  of  God  in  his  heart,  he  is  more  than  his 
deeds  now  indicate.  The  stumbling  disciple 
has  something  that  makes  him  more  than  the 
faithless  one  he  seems.  He  is  faced  in  the 
right  way,  and  though  it  seems  to  men  he  is  in 
exactly  the  place  where  the  unbeliever  is, 
they  are  going  in  opposite  directions,  and  are, 
after  all,  as  different  as  good  and  bad.  They 
seem  alike  now,  but  one  is  going  one  way  and 
the  other  is  going  the  other  way,  and  in  time 
to  come  they  will  reveal  in  wide  contrast 
their  present  hidden  difference.  For  they 
are  different.  The  Gospel  never  obscures  the 
fact  that  they  are  different.  The  one  has  in 
him  some  badness  and  the  other  has  in  him 
some  goodness,  but  they  are  not  the  same. 
Black  on  white  is  not  the  same  as  white  on 
black.    Tares  and  wheat  when  they  begin  to 

[  52  ] 


Saints  Outside  the  Church 


grow,  look  so  much  alike  that  servants  set  to 
pull  up  the  tares,  may  easily  from  the  resem- 
blance, pull  up  the  wheat.  But  in  the  harvest, 
by  no  carelessness  could  one  be  taken  for  the 
other.  For  all  their  looking  so  much  alike 
when  young,  their  natures  are  different.  It  is 
in  the  heart  that  a  man  is  good.  It  is  in  the 
heart  that  a  man  is  bad.  This  does  not  mean 
that  what  one  does  counts  for  nothing.  It 
says  that  the  motive  is  more  than  the  act. 
It  says  that  the  direction  in  which  one  is  go- 
ing is  more  than  the  actual  place  one  is  in,  on 
the  way.  It  says  that  the  man  who  is  grow- 
ing a  little  better,  though  he  have  grave 
faults,  is  greater  than  he,  who  though  he  be 
wholly  respectable,  is  yet  falling  away  from 
his  ideals,  and  is  growing,  it  may  be  only  a 
little  worse.  The  one  giving  over  his  will  in 
obedience  is  better  by  far  than  the  other  who 
in  his  all-inclusive  choice  refuses  to  obey. 

For  the  heart  may  be  defiant  and  disloyal, 
though  there  be  much  good  that  a  man  does; 
and  with  the  heart  wrong,  to  God  all  is 
wrong.  The  heart  may  be  right,  though 
there  be  much  wrong  that  a  man  does;  and 
with  the  heart  right,  to  God  all  is  right.  The 
one,  in  spite  of  his  good  deeds,  because  of  his 

[  53  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

evil  heart,  is  already  lost;  the  other,  in  spite 
of  his  evil  deeds,  because  of  his  good  heart,  is 
already  saved. 

He  v^ho  has  given  himself  to  God  in  the 
determination  to  do  God's  will,  and  has  sealed 
that  purpose  by  an  open  confession  of  Christ, 
is  a  different  kind  of  a  person.  He  is  dif- 
ferent, in  that  the  center  of  his  life  is  in  God; 
and  he  is  different  in  that  the  center  of  his 
life  is  in  the  Church.  The  righteousness  of 
Christ  is  his  because  of  the  one,  and  the  right- 
eousness of  the  Church — its  ideals,  its  pur- 
poses, its  Lord — is  his  because  of  the  other. 
Nev^  springs  of  conviction,  steadfastness,  and 
power,  flow  for  him.  He  is  more  than  him- 
self because  of  his  alliance  with  them.  He 
is  on  a  tide  that  he  does  not  make.  What  he 
could  not  do  alone,  he  can  do  because  of  them. 
As  the  sheep  is  more  than  itself  because  of 
the  shepherd,  and  the  pupil  is  more  than  him- 
self because  of  the  teacher,  and  the  child  is 
more  than  himself  because  of  the  parent,  and 
the  soldier  is  more  than  himself  because  of 
the  army,  so  the  believer  is  more  than  him- 
self because  of  the  fellowship  of  the  saints. 
The  confidence,  that  if  a  person  is  baptized, 
he  is  thereby  saved,  has  it  validity  here.    For 

[  54  ] 


Saints  Outside  the  Church 


baptism  is  the  rite  of  initiation  into  the 
Church.  And  the  Church  does  have  the  sal- 
vation of  its  members  in  its  keeping.  The 
presence  of  Christ  is  in  it.  Consequently,  it 
is  actually  true  that  he  who  believes  and  is 
baptized  is  saved.  What  he  cannot  do  alone, 
he  can  do  because  of  the  push  and  pull  of  the 
Church. 

The  Church  does  not  fear  to  be  judged 
by  the  character  it  makes.  With  but  forty 
per  cent  of  our  population  in  the  Churches, 
eighty  per  cent,  of  all  the  social  v^orkers  in 
America  are  members  of  our  Churches.  More 
than  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  private  gifts 
to  public  charity  in  the  city  of  Boston,  are 
from  church  members.  Judge  Fawcett  of 
Brooklyn  has  stated  that  of  the  twenty-seven 
hundred  or  more  persons  brought  before  his 
court  in  five  years,  not  one  was  associated 
with  the  Church.  Apparently  the  law- 
breakers and  the  great  sinners  are  outside, 
the  fruit  of  that  unbelief  which  is  the  essence 
of  sin.  On  the  other  hand,  the  worth  of  the 
Church  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  of  all  the 
men  whose  names  appear  in  "Who's  Who," 
as  many  as  one  out  of  twelve  is  the  son  of  a 
minister. 

[  55  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  IX 

PUBLIC  CONFESSION  OF  CHRIST  IS  THE 

TEST  OF  THAT  LOYALTY  WHICH 

MAKES  THE  CHRISTIAN 

The  reader  may  here  find  himself  asking 
whether  he  is  a  Christian.  He  may  be  say- 
ing ''I  cannot  join  the  Church,  because  I  do 
not  know  that  I  am  a  Christian/'  No;  the 
Church  is  the  family  of  Christians. 

It  is  submission  to  the  will  of  God  that 
makes  the  Christian.  The  Christian  is 
Christ's  man.  He  takes  Christ  as  his  mas- 
ter. He  takes  Christ's  yoke,  just  as  the 
humble  ox  takes  the  yoke  of  its  master.  Paul 
calls  himself  "Christ's  slave."  The  Chris- 
tian is  not  his  own  —  he  is  owned.  He  who 
faces  this  issue  and  gives  way  to  Christ  is 
a  Christian. 

It  is  all  something  like  this:  Two  men 
have  borne  for  years  the  feeling  of  enmity 
toward  each  other.  They  have  been  ruled 
by  their  pride.  And  then  one  humbles  him- 
self and  bows  down  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
He  becomes  Christ's  servant,  and  Christ  be- 

[  56  ] 


The  Loyalty  That  Makes  the  Christain 

comes  in  fact,  his  Lord.  He  ceases  to  please 
himself  and  now  pleases  Christ.  His  pur- 
pose is  not  to  do  what  is  pleasant,  nor  what 
is  expedient,  but  only  what  is  right. 

It  is  just  this  test  of  "Who  rules?"  that  is 
afforded  by  a  public  confession  of  Christ.  It 
brings  to  a  point  and  makes  definite  the  loy- 
alty or  the  disloyalty  of  a  person.  It  is  a 
real  test  of  who  is  master.  To  confess  Christ, 
runs  across  the  grain  of  our  proud,  wilful 
nature.  We  want  to  please  ourselves,  to 
set  ourselves  up  in  independence  of  Him  and 
in  opposition  to  Him.  Here  in  the  matter 
of  a  public  confession  is  the  very  same  nar- 
row gate  he  goes  through  who  becomes  a 
Christian.  He  then,  who  can  here  now  go 
through  this  narrow  gate,  need  have  no  doubt 
whether  he  is  Christ's.  He  has  surrendered 
himself.  That  is  why  the  public  confession 
of  Christ  stands  at  the  entrance  into  Christ's 
Church.  It  is  a  test  whether  one  is  loyal. 
And  loyalty  and  nothing  else  is  the  soul  of 
religion. 

Persons  who  some  years  ago  publicly  con- 
fessed Christ,  will  find  in  their  now  con- 
fessing their  faith  in  Him  by  the  transfer  of 
their  membership  to  the  Church  in  the  place 

[  57  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

where  they  now  live,  the  only  real  proof  of 
their  now  having  a  faith  that  is  alive.  For 
the  same  issue  of  ''Who  rules?"  is  by  this 
matter  now  once  again  forced  upon  them. 

The  public  confession  of  Christ  is  the 
needed  test  of  loyalty.  For  let  it  be  under- 
stood that  the  seriousness  of  discipleship  in- 
volves the  giving  up  of  our  wills.  To  do 
what  we  do  not  want  to  do  is  what  it  means. 
For  to  obey  only  in  what  one  pleases  to 
obey  in,  is  hardly  obedience.  That  puts  self 
and  not  Christ  on  the  throne.  Here  then,  in 
the  confession  one  is  resolved  not  to  make, 
is  exactly  the  thing  Christ  is  resolved  shall 
prove  our  loyalty.  And  until  one  in  this 
thing,  can  humble  one's  self,  one  is  rebellious. 
Some  such  test  therefore  is  necessary  at  the 
door  of  the  Church.  Less  than  this  absolute 
surrender  Christ  could  not  ask,  and  less  than 
this,  the  Church  could  not  ask. 

It  is  vain  to  think  one  is  loyal  while  there 
is  a  stiff  and  deliberate  refusal  at  even  one 
point  of  issue.  One  does  not  need  to  deny  in 
everything  in  order  to  deny  Christ,  any  more 
than  one  needs  to  die  of  every  disease  in 
order  to  be  dead.  And  somewhere  this  issue 
of  "Who  rules?"  must  come  up.     It  may  be 

[  58  ] 


The  Loyalty  That  Makes  the  Christain 

here,  or  it  may  be  there,  but  it  must  come 
up.  And  just  this  test  of  who  is  master,  is 
afforded  by  the  command  that  we  confess 
Christ  before  men.  That  one  is  resolved  not 
to  do  this,  is  just  the  reason  why  it  becomes 
the  thing  that  one  shall  do.  Here  is  af- 
forded just  the  situation  that  is  needed  —  a 
definite  decision  of  loyalty,  an  act  and  a  deed, 
time  and  place.  For  it  matters  little  how 
long  one  thinks  a  thing  over,  and  how  deep- 
ly he  feels  about  it,  and  how  he  admires  the 
doing  it,  and  how  much  he  intends  to  do  and 
resolves  to  do,  and  how  many  promises  he 
makes  —  these  all  wait  in  a  futility  worse 
than  useless  —  wait  in  a  sapping  of  the  pow- 
er of  the  will  and  of  the  power  of  decision  — 
wait  in  a  paralyzing  weakness  —  for  the  act 
that  alone  makes  purpose  into  other  than 
dreams. 


59  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

CHAPTER  X 

AT  SOME  MORE  CONVENIENT  SEASON 

The  reader,  without  doubt,  once  he  gives  his 
approval  to  this  matter,  will  be  tempted  to 
put  off  the  taking  the  first  step. 

But  he  who  thus  dallies  with  duty  is  al- 
ready lost.  To  put  off  the  doing,  is  by  that 
very  putting  off  already  to  have  decided 
against.  For  ought  not  the  glory  of  Christ 
at  once  persuade  one?  And  if  in  the  face  of 
that  glory,  one  puts  off  and  delays  allegiance, 
must  not  that  action  show  that  preference 
for  something  else  that  amounts  to  a  denial 
of  Christ?  One  who  does  not  follow 
"straightway"  does  not  at  all  value  the  glory 
of  the  Master,  whom  he  says  he  will  follow 
by  and  by.  When  in  the  parable,  the  mer- 
chantman finds  one  pearl  of  a  great  price,  ev- 
ery other  is  as  nothing  to  his  desire — he  goes 
straightway,  sells  all  that  he  has  and  buys 
it.  How  long  may  one  put  off  beginning 
to  tell  the  truth,  beginning  to  be  pure? 
"Why"  we  say,  "these  things  never  become 
more  right  than  they  are  this  moment."  And 

[  60  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

just  as  he  who  puts  off  beginning  to  be  pure, 
does  not  believe  in  purity,  and  just  as  he  who 
puts  off  the  ceasing  to  steal  does  not  believe 
in  honesty,  so  he  who  puts  off  confessing 
Christ  does  not  believe  in  Christ.  He  be- 
lieves in  something  else  more.  And  so  by 
putting  off,  he  has  actually  decided  against 
Christ.  He  who  puts  off  confessing  Christ, 
has  by  that  deliberate  choice  annulled  that 
other  deliberate  choice  by  which  in  secret 
intention  and  by  all  his  deep  admiration,  he 
gave  himself  to  Him.  Just  as  the  debtor  who 
always  intends  to  pay,  yet  never  gets  around 
to  begin,  annuls  by  his  deliberately  spending 
his  money  for  something  else,  all  the  promises 
he  has  made.  Just  as  in  the  tragedy,  Hamlet's 
hesitation  and  delay  enthrone  acts  that  swal- 
low up  his  intention,  till,  caught  in  the  grip 
of  this  paralysis,  his  life,  by  the  momentum  of 
its  indecision,  runs  on  to  its  tragic  close. 

To  put  off  to  another  time,  the  taking  the 
first  step  is  already  to  lose.  It  is  to  lose  the 
conviction  in  which  the  determination  to  act 
at  all,  even  at  some  other  time,  is  born.  We 
catch  this  vision  today,  but  we  do  not  have  it 
tomorrow.  The  light  by  which  this  is  seen  as 
duty  does  not  always  shine.    But  the  convic- 

[  6i  1 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

tion  we  have  is  only  because  bright  light  has 
shone.  What  we  have  now  is  all  we  can  ever 
have.  The  prodigal  is  saved,  because  in  that 
far  country,  having  a  feeling  of  shame  and 
regret,  he  at  once  suits  action  to  feeling.  He 
said,  "1  will  arise  and  go."  And  he  arose  and 
went.  He  was  up  and  away  before  he  slept. 
That  decision  and  that  promptness  saved 
him.  If  he  had  waited  a  day — even  the  wait- 
ing would  have  been  proof  that  he  was  not 
in  earnest.  And  denying  his  conviction  for 
the  time,  he  surely  would  not  have  felt  it  so 
strongly,  if  he  had  felt  it  at  all,  the  next  day. 
Ah  no.  It  is  not  waiting  that  makes  the  con- 
viction grow  stronger,  but  the  going  ahead  in 
the  strength  of  what  conviction  there  is,  just 
as  in  the  case  of  those  automobiles  which,  by 
their  very  going  make  light  for  their  way. 

Like  other  living  things,  the  soul  has  its 
seasons.  There  are  times  when  we  feel 
strongly  that  we  ought  to  do  some  good 
thing.  At  these  times  we  are  not  far  from 
the  .Kingdom  of  God. 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
Which,  taken  at  its  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune ; 
Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  life 
Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries." 

I    62  1 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

No  one  knows  just  where  this  dividing 
line  is,  and  when  one  is  about  to  cross  it. 
The  beginning  of  all  things  is  in  darkness, 
both  in  time  and  in  space.  We  can  tell  that 
the  tide  is  coming  in,  and  later  we  can  tell 
that  it  is  going  out ;  but  just  when  that  tide, 
now  resistless,  turned,  we  did  not  know.  We 
are  certain  that  a  while  ago  it  was  full  day, 
and  now  we  are  sure  that  it  is  night,  but  just 
when  the  darkness  began  to  settle  down,  we 
did  not  know.  A  man  knows  that  some  time 
ago  he  was  well ;  he  knows  now^  that  he  can- 
not live,  but  when  he  crossed  that  fatal  line, 
he  could  not  know.  It  may  be  said  that  in 
any  man's  life  up  to  some  point,  there  was 
the  probability  that  he  would  respond  in  a 
definite  decision  to  the  influences  of  good 
that  press  upon  him;  that  beyond  a  certain 
point,  it  was  unlikely  that  he  make  any  re- 
sponse. But  where  that  point  was  and  when 
he  passed  by  it,  he  could  not  tell. 

We  do  not  know.  Therefore,  lest  it  be 
the  point  of  turning,  we  must  seize  the  op- 
portunity at  hand.  "No  man  knoweth  the 
day  nor  the  hour  when  the  Son  of  man  com- 
eth."  Therefore,  as  the  porter  at  the  gate, 
faithful  to  every  moment,  lest  this  neglected 

[  63  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

moment  be  the  very  one  when  his  Master 
shall  come,  we  must  watch.  For  any  mo- 
ment may  have  in  it  our  very  destiny.  This 
present  conviction  of  ought  with  which  one 
is  tempted  to  trifle,  may  actually  be  the  turn 
of  the  tide.  For  every  good  inclination  of 
feeling  is  fully  sacred.  It  is  the  very  voice 
of  God.  Without  any  question  it  is  the  most 
serious  matter  conceivable,  this  stirring  with- 
in the  soul  of  a  true  desire  which  exalts  this 
moment.  And  the  difference  between  men 
touching  their  eternal  welfare,  is  just  the  dif- 
ference with  which  they  give  response  to 
that  word.     The  real  dividing  line  is  "I  will.'' 

The  soul  has  its  seasons.  Boys  who  put 
off  the  learning  to  read  to  some  more  con- 
venient time  than  youth  —  put  off  either  be- 
cause they  feel  it  will  be  easier  to  learn  at 
some  other  time  than  now,  or  from  simply 
drawing  back  from  doing  the  thing  at  hand 
because  it  requires  some  nerve  —  miss  their 
chance.  They  miss  it  so  completely  that  it 
is  the  rarest  of  things  that  a  man  once  grown 
up,  learns  to  read.  Once  pass  a  few  years  of 
early  life  and  the  opportunity  is  gone. 

You  can  readily  see,  reader,  that  to  put  off 
deciding,  or  to  put  off  acting  on  a  decision 

[  64  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

one  has  made,  does  not  settle  anything.  The 
same  issue  still  presents,  the  same  obligation 


You  would  not  counsel  boys  to  make  this  the  way  to  knowl- 
edge, nor  argue  that  there  will  he  for  them  a  better  time  to 

learn. 


still  holds,  the  very  same  steps  must  some- 
time be  taken.  Waiting  can  do  no  more  than 
let  the  chance  go  by.  To  settle  a  thing,  one 
must  decide  it,  and  do  it.  To  put  off  doing 
a  thing  is  not  to  do  it  any  more  than  putting 
off  sowing  is  to  sow^  the  seed.  To  settle  an 
account  one  must  pay  it.  To  put  off  paying 
does    not    make   the    amount   less;    it   adds 

[  65  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

interest  and  makes  the  debt  more,  and  there- 
fore harder  to  pay.  Nor  will  God  be  more 
gracious  tomorrow,  nor  make  easier  terms. 
Nor  by  putting  off,  does  one  gain  power  to 
act,  nor  is  the  performance  of  duty  thereby 
made  easier.  On  the  other  hand,  the  present 
denial,  making  the  rut  of  denial  on  the  brain, 
makes  other  denials  easier,  till  in  time,  one 
lacks  the  power  to  execute  anything  disa- 
greeable. He  who  does  not  heed  the  call  to- 
day, will  be  less  likely  both  to  hear  it  and  to 
heed  it  tomorrow.  The  statistics  of  a  group 
of  Churches  show  that  ninety  per  cent,  of 
their  members  joined  the  Church  before  they 
were  nineteen  years  of  age.  Since  at  least 
one-half  of  the  people  do  not  join  the  Church 
at  any  age,  if  of  those  who  join  the  Church, 
nine  of  out  of  ten  join  it  before  they  are  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  then  at  that  age,  out  of 
twenty  persons,  nineteen  already  have  closed 
the  Church  against  themselves.  And  cer- 
tainly at  this  age  they  have  closed  it  not  by 
once  for  all  and  deliberately  refusing  to  join 
the  Church,  but  by  the  self-deceit  of  putting 
off. 

The    same   statistics    show   that   one-half 
the  members  of  these  Churches  joined  the 

[  66  ] 


Joined 
the  Church 
before  they 
were  nine- 
teen years 
of  age  -  9/10 


Joined 
the  Church 
after  they 
were  nine- 
teen years 
of  age  -  Vio 


The  folly  of  those 
who  put  off 


Church  before  they 
were  sixteen  years  of 
age.  They  acted  when 
others  promised.  They 
acted  and  the  thing 
was  done.  Youth, 
life's  springtime,  is  the 
season  of  beginnings. 
In  the  springtime  of 
life  the  future  is  sealed, 
as  the  kind  of  seed 
chosen  and  sown  in 
nature's  springtime 
seals  once  for  all,  the 
harvest.  The  choices 
of  youth  carry  in  them 
more  than  the  day  in 
which  they  are  made; 
they  carry  in  them  the 
future  years.  For 
what  we  think  and 
what  we  do,  make 
actual  ruts  on  the 
brain.  If  one  could  see 
in  on  the  surface  of  the 
brain  one  could  see  the 
ruts    of    our    thinking 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

and  of  our  doing  there.  They  have  length 
and  depth  like  other  ruts.  They  give  one's 
character  a  genuine  physical  basis,  and  prove 
how  surely  it  becomes  fixed.  Once  made, 
these  ruts  keep  us  in  them,  whether  we  will 
or  not.  That  is  what  makes  each  choice  a 
serious  thing  —  it  makes  a  groove  we  can- 
not easily  get  out  of.  We  cannot  turn  out 
of  the  rut  made  by  doing,  at  the  mere  desire. 
And  we  cannot  make  new  ruts  because  we 
are  so  deeply  in  the  old.  To  have  first  to 
break  off  drinking  —  ah !  what  a  handicap 
that  is  to  temperance! 

The  completeness  of  this  bondage  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  we  are  apt  even  to 
think  in  accord  with  what  we  do.  Conse- 
quently, after  a  while,  in  case  we  do  other 
than  we  approve,  we  cannot  see  things  as 
they  are.  We  see  them  only  as  our  doing 
has  made  them  appear.  The  drunkard  does 
not  see  drunkenness  with  the  same  horror 
as  at  first.  He  is  biased  in  his  thinking:  by 
what  he  does.  Doing  shapes  thinking,  just 
as  thinking  shapes  doing.  Thus  the  very 
standard  of  right  —  that  sense  which  is  the 
birth-right  and  the  health  of  the  soul — is 
debased.     The  way  we  shall  regard  things 

[  68  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

comes  to  be  already  determined  by  the  way 
we  have  acted  toward  them.  The  longer 
one  puts  off  considering  going  to  school,  and 
the  longer  he  puts  off  going  to  school  once 
the  matter  has  his  praise,  the  surer  is  it  by 
the  crowding  in  of  what  he  has  crowned  in 
its  stead,  to  be  forced  from  its  throne.  For 
one  cannot  long  even  admire  what  he  will 
not  do.  That  undermining  of  the  very  foun- 
dation of  moral  sense  makes  the  folly  of 
putting  off.  Since  our  mere  admiration  of 
a  thing  makes  no  such  groove  on  the  brain 
as  is  made  by  what  we  do,  what  we  do  now 
instead  of  the  good  thing  we  promise  to  do 
sometime,  overtakes  and  destroys  what  we 
admire  and  think  and  promise  to  do. 

The  very  foundation  of  judgment  —  the 
sense  by  which  right  and  wrong  is  reported 
in  true  character  —  is  undermined  by  delay. 
And  just  as  touching  the  mind  this  cor- 
ruption of  the  standard  of  sanity  is  a  terrible 
thing,  so  touching  the  spirit,  this  corrupting 
of  the  moral  sense  is  terrible.  For  in  insan- 
ity, the  standard  of  reason  being  shattered, 
all  hope  is  gone  since  there  is  now  no  sane- 
ness  by  which  reason  may  be  tested  and  its 
faultiness  made  to  appear.     If  the  compass 

[  69  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

is  crazy,  who  using  it,  can  tell  which  is  north? 
Exactly  so  when  in  a  man  the  moral  standard 


In  insanity  the  standard  of  reason  is  shattered,  and  there  is 

now  no  saneness  by  which  reason  may  be  tested  and  its  faulti- 

ness  appear. 

itself  is  overthrown,  there  is  nothing  by 
which  his  purposes  and  his  conduct  can  be 
tested,  and  his  error  be  shown.  We  speak 
both  of  losing  the  mind  and  of  losing  the  soul, 
and  what  we  know  of  the  one  makes  plain 
the  reality  and  the  horror  of  the  other. 

Delay,  if  one  be  honest  in  it,  can  be  only 
that  one  may  have  time  for  serious  effort  to 
reach  a  settled  conviction.     Not  all  the  evi- 

[  70  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

dence  is  yet  in,  and  in  consequence  one  can- 
not make  up  one's  mind.  But  it  is  clear  that  if 
one  is  honest  in  the  matter  of  delay,  one  will 
not  allow  it  to  be  mere  dalliance,  but  will 
promptly  get  all  the  evidence  in  and  decide. 
He  who  asks  that  he  may  wait  till  he  gets  all 
evidence  in — if  he  is  honest  in  his  asking,  and 
his  asking  delay  be  other  than  an  excuse  — 
cannot  spend  the  time  doing  everything  but 
getting  in  evidence.  He  who  makes  un- 
readiness the  reason  for  not  going  to  school, 
must — if  there  be  truth  in  his  word — be  busy 
with  nothing  else  till  he  is  ready.  For,  he 
does  not  prefer,  what  he  does  not  at  once  pre- 
fer to  make  ready  for;  he  prefers  what  he 
puts  first  and  makes  ready  for. 

To  put  off  considering  a  matter  and  to  do 
no  more,  is  folly.  It  is  the  unbalance  of  a 
fool.  It  is  the  court  all  organized  for  delib- 
eration and  judgment,  that  puts  off  and  puts 
off,  and  busy  with  trifles,  never  takes  up  the 
case  nor  tries  to  reach  a  verdict.  It  is  the 
senate  where  no  one  puts  a  motion,  where  no 
business  is  introduced  and  considered,  while 
month  after  month  is  frittered  away,  with  the 
excuse  for  inaction,  that  it  does  not  know  the 
facts.     It  is  the  weaver  whose  spindle  and 

[  71  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


wool  are  ready,  but  who  puts  off  and  puts  off 
beginning,  and  the  first  threads  of  the  gar- 


_-^JI 


The  fool  senate  does  all  sorts  of  things  except  consider  its  real 
business. 


ment  he  declares  he  wants  to  make  are  not 
spun.  Into  such  dishonesty  the  inaction  and 
indecision  of  putting  off  involve  one.  It 
looks  very  much  like  an  excuse  hiding  the 
real  determination  not  to  consider  the  mat- 
ter at  all. 

To  put  off  acting  along  the  line  of  one's 
conviction  and  approval  is  like  separating 
judgment  and  its  execution.  The  jury  has 
brought  in  its  verdict,  and  sentence  is  pro- 
nounced.      But  execution  is  stayed.       The 

[  72  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

discussion  has  gone  on,  the  evidence  is  all  in, 
the  right  is  clear  as  day,  and  a  verdict  is 
reached.  But  there  all  ends.  No  step  is 
taken  to  carry  the  verdict  into  effect.  The 
yarn  is  spun  and  the  cloth  is  woven,  but  it 
never  becomes  a  garment. 

Putting  off  action  to  some  future  time  is  of 
course  a  trick  of  deception  one  practices  upon 
one's  self.  It  grants  the  obligation,  admits 
the  rightness  of  the  claim,  and  therefore  does 
it  honor.  But  then  by  present  actual 
neglect,  the  whole  intention  is  dethroned  and 
supplanted.  The  mere  approval,  or  the 
promise  to  do  the  thing  sometime,  deceives 
one  into  the  feeling  that  one's  duty  is  done, 
sets  one  at  ease,  while  the  actual  denial  steals 
in  and  rules,  in  the  contrary  deed  at  hand. 
One  promises  one's  self  "sometime"  to  take 
this  step,  and  the  mere  promise  soothes  to 
sleep  the  sense  of  duty,  and  under  this  con- 
tentment, opposing  things  near  at  hand, 
rush  in  and  strangle  the  very  promise,  one 
by  inaction,  has  let  go  to  sleep.  Putting  off 
like  other  lies,  deceives  with  a  promise,  the 
soul's  present  desire  to  do  duty.' 

Putting  off,  whatever  the  guise  it  takes,  is 
a  form  of  indecision.     It  is  a  deadly  defect 

[  73  1 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

of  character,  for  after  all  it  is  a  real  denial. 
Thus  McClellan  seems  to  have  fooled  him- 


He  who  puts  off  paying  for  the  clothes  he  zvears,  and  the  meals 
he  eats,  and  the  rent  of  his  rooms, — refusing  to  do  now  all  he 
can  to  meet  his  expenses  —  comes  soon  to  find  that  by  such 
borrozving  from  the  future,  tomorrow,  instead  of  being  before 
him,  is  behind  him,  and  in  all  the  claims  unsatisfied,  is  now 
an  enemy  stealing  up  to  stab  him  to  death. 

self  by  supposing  that  in  his  inaction  he  was 
getting  ready  for  striking  the  great  blow,  we 
now  know,  he  was  incompetent  to  strike. 
Amiel,  a  brilliant  young  professor  in  Geneva, 
with  talents  that  promised  a  noteworthy  ca- 
reer, slowly  disappointed  his  admirers  and 
passed  into  obscurity.     From  his  journal  it 

[  74  1 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

appears  that  he  was  always  waiting  to 
be  a  little  better  prepared  before  attempting 
anything.  See  how  it  works  in  one  of  the 
commonest  situations  of  life.  A  debtor  ad- 
mits the  claim  against  him,  can  never  consent 
to  the  deliberately  defrauding  his  creditor, 
and  yet  by  the  subtile  deceit  of  putting  off, 
spite  of  his  intention,  his  neglect  to  pay  now 
by  admitting  other  things  to  rule,  makes  that 
defrauding  actual.  And  thus  our  great  con- 
victions and  our  great  resolutions,  not  at 
once  acted  out,  come,  by  a  thing  as  seemingly 
innocent  as  neglect,  to  their  death,  buried 
with  the  generations  of  bright  hopes  and 
dreams  of  good  and  lofty  promises  with 
which  the  past  is  full. 

''Don't  talk  about  things  you  are  going  to  do, 
Don't  say  that  you  mean  to  be  noble  and  true, 
Don't  wait  till  tomorrow  to  make  up  your  mind 
That  you'll  make  others  happy,  and  always  be  kind ; 
For  tomorrow  you'll  talk  as  you're  talking  today, 
And  your  good  resolutions  will  vanish  away. 
Do  it  now — let  the  world  see  you  mean  to  be  true ! 
Oh !  don't  talk  of  the  things  you  are  going  to  do !" 

For  the  story  of  many,  many  lives  would 
surely  be  different  if  the  promises  men  make 
in  putting  off  were  redeemed.      It  cannot  be 

[  75  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

that  the  persons  who  we  see  are  now  so  in- 
different and  insensible,  have  never  felt  the 
claims  of  service,  and  have  never  given  any 
admiration  to  love.  No.  They  once  felt  the 
wooing  of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  we  all  have. 
They  felt  the  wooing  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  but 
they  dared  to  put  off  the  taking  the  step  that 
is  the  hearty  and  prompt  response.  They 
put  off  upon  some  other  time  the  doing  the 
thing  they  were  then  too  faithless  to  do. 
That  trick  set  them  at  ease  and  gave  their 
weakness  its  way.  But  that  very  step  may 
bankrupt  the  soul  that  a  right  first  step 
would  have  enriched,  and  the  promise  could 
not  be  redeemed. 

Up  therefore  reader,  and  once  for  all  de- 
cide this  matter.  Get  in  the  reasons  for  and 
against,  give  your  verdict,  and  act.  Take  by 
action  the  first  real  step.  Be  sure,  what  you 
do  counts  for  more  than  what  you  promise 
and  intend.  Do  not  let  yourself  be  persuaded 
that  you  will  have  the  courage  to  do  next 
month  or  next  year  the  thing  you  are  afraid 
to  do  now.  It  is  determination,  decision, 
that  adds  the  needed  factor;  mere  waiting 
never  supplies  it.  Unnourished  by  some 
fitting    action,    and    unsupported    by    some 

[  76  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

fitting  deed,  our  good  intentions  die;  slain 
by  rival  evil,  which  masked  as  harmless 
neglect,  steals  in  and  chokes  any  intention  we 
allow  to  sleep. 

Act;  act.  And  do  not  wait  with  the  idea 
that  everything  must  favor.  That  support 
never  comes  to  anything.  Some  objection 
besets  every  enterprise,  wind  the  sower,  cloud 
the  reaper.  The  sower  asks  only  that  there 
be  a  fair  chance  for  sowing;  the  reaper  asks 
only  that  there  be  a  fair  chance  for  reaping. 
You  do  not  wait  till  everything  favors  buy- 
ing, or  selling,  or  journeying,  or  marrying,  or 
playing,  or  resting,  or  eating.  You  expect 
to  find  in  these  two  sides,  to  weigh  for  and 
against,  and  choose.  Some  objection  can  be 
found  to  every  undertaking.  One  who  waits 
till  everything  favors  will  wait  and  wait  and 
attempt  nothing. 

And  remember  too,  that  what  is  needed 
in  most  cases  is  not  more  arguments  and 
reasons  to  persuade,  but  simply  that  deter- 
mination without  which  any  force  of  argu- 
ment will  be  in  vain.  He  who  does  not  want 
to  sow  will  find  excuse  enough  in  the  wind; 
he  who  does  not  want  to  reap  will  find  excuse 
enough  in  the  cloud. 

[77] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

Religion,  or  loyalty,  like  every  other  ac- 
complishment is  based  on  will  and  not  on 
feeling;  it  springs  out  of  principle  and  not 
out  of  emotion.  It  seizes  the  chance  of  what- 
ever sort  it  is,  by  determination  supplies  the 
lacking  thing,  and  does  not  wait  for  great 
overpowering  emotion.  Emotion  is  only  a 
balmy  climate,  a  matter  of  mood,  but  no  real 
enterprise  is  allowed  to  depend  upon  the 
weather.  If  the  weather  be  fair,  blessed  be 
the  day;  but  if  it  be  not  fair,  still  we  go  forth 
to  our  labor.  We  cast  forth  the  seed  in  the 
face  of  the  wind ;  we  reap  under  threatening 
skies.  That  is  the  valid  proof  that  we  are 
sincere  and  in  earnest. 

This  determination — keeping  one's  self  gen- 
uine in  the  face  of  plausible  excuses — offers 
the  only  chance  for  beginning,  the  only 
ground  for  enduring.  It  seizes  the  day  of 
whatever  sort  it  is,  and  works  as  it  can,  in  the 
assurance  that  just  this  day  is  one's  chance. 
Soldiers  who  should  report  on  the  basis  of 
their  feeling,  would  be  an  army  in  which  no 
dependence  could  be  put,  up  or  down  accord- 
ing to  the  weather,  their  own  or  any  other's. 
But  an  army,  such  from  principle,  like 
Cromwell's    Ironsides,  would    be    a    perfect 

[  78  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

fighting  machine  and  establish  any  kingdom. 
Workmen  who  would  work  on  the  basis  of 
inclination  and  not  on  the  basis  of  determi- 
nation, would  by  that  inconstancy  shatter 
any  industry;  be  just  like  the  men  who 
would  be  kept  from  work  by  cold  or  heat, 
or  wind  or  cloud.  For  inclination  is  just  the 
heart's  weather,  real,  but  not  to  be  allowed 
to  command. 

One  must  take  himself  strictly  in  hand  in 
beginning  any  good  work.  That  first  step, 
without  which  all  other  steps  wait  for  their 
direction,  will  not  take  itself.  It  simply  must 
be  taken.  The  will  must  be  girded  up  for 
this  thing  —  the  determination  that  makes 
things  come  to  pass.  Starting  on  the  way 
only  when  we  shall  have  been  overpowered 
by  some  mighty  emotion,  we  wait  for  that 
perfect  day  when  we  shall  be  swept  out  of 
ourselves,  carried  over  every  obstacle  and 
overwhelmed  by  a  great  conjunction  of  fa- 
voring things.  In  our  imagination,  under 
some  such  spell,  we  make  all  kinds  of  sacri- 
fices, dare  the  Lord's  enemies,  bear  convinc- 
ing witness,  and  annex  whole  provinces  to 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  But  waiting  for  that 
perfect  day  that  never  comes,  seedtime  and 

[  79  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

harvest  come  and  go,  and  all  the  opportuni- 
ties by  which  we  make  the  first  beginnings  of 
love. 

The  gospels  warn  us  against  trusting  to 
circumstances  to  overwhelm  us.  We  imagine 
we  will  do  tomorrow  what  we  are  too 
cowardly  to  do  today,  and  comfort  ourselves 
in  our  neglect  with  the  thought  that  we 
would  be  more  faithful  in  some  chance  we  do 
not  have  than  we  are  to  the  one  we  do.  But 
he  who  misses  the  present  chance  surely  has 
poor  preparation  for  laying  hold  of  any  in  the 
future  —  that  preparation  lying  more  in  us 
than  in  any  outward  circumstance,  and  Jesus 
exposed  the  hypocrisy  of  the  excuse.  It  was 
to  this  mind  exactly  that  Jesus,  replying  to 
Dives'  excuse  for  his  brothers — "if  one  went 
to  them  from  the  dead  they  will  repent'' — 
makes  Abraham  say  of  them,  "If  they  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they 
be  persuaded  if  one  rose  from  the  dead."  In 
the  practical  business  of  life  we  do  not  reason 
that  he  who  has  refused  the  opportunities  of 
a  humble  sort,  will  be  faithful  in  some  great 
place  now  open.  We  do  not  promote  to 
place  of  power  him  who,  scorning  the  low- 
ly task  has  waited  for  the  coming  of  some 

[  80  ] 


At  Some  More  Convenient  Season 

greater  day.  No.  It  is  not  more  reasons 
why  we  should  be  faithful  that  we  need, 
and  not  more  evidence  to  persuade  us,  nor 
greater  and  greater  light.  What  we  need  is 
just  plain  honesty,  plain  genuineness  in  deal- 
ing with  the  present  duty  and  the  present 
chance.  He  who  does  not  give  two  mites 
out  of  penury,  however  much  he  dream  he 
would  do  if  only  he  had  riches,  will  with 
great  superfluity  be  loveless  stilL  "What 
would  you  do  if  you  had  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars" was  once  asked  a  poor  man.  "What 
I  am  doing  with  one  thousand  dollars,"  he 
replied.  And  that  is  true.  More  money 
does  not  change  our  hearts  any  more  than 
more  clothes  change  them.  Real  sacrifice 
is  as  often  found  among  the  poor  as  among 
the  rich.  Many  opportunities  is  no  assur- 
ance that  one  will  make  right  use  of  them. 
And  the  only  ground  for  confidence  that  one 
will  rightly  use  tomorrow  when  it  comes,  is 
that  one  is  rightly  using  today. 


[  8i  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  TERRIBLE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  INSIN- 
CERITY IN  SETTLING  A  QUESTION 

It  is  clear  from  the  foregoing  that  a  person 
may  easily  permit  himself  to  fool  himself  in 
this  matter.  Any  reasoning  that  is  not  whol- 
ly genuine  but  rather  excuse,  is  just  a  fool's 
mask  for  hiding  frowning  facts.  It  is  lying 
to  one's  self.  It  is  giving  things  a  value  they 
do  not  have.  It  is  counting  brass,  gold.  It 
is  counting  heat,  cold;  cold,  heat.  This  is 
inviting  dangerous  confusion.  For  all  such 
insincerity  is  throwing  distrust  upon  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  mind  and  soul  —  upon  those 
very  faculties  which  are  as  compass  to  keep 
us  in  touch  with  reality  and  value,  and  so 
from  being  lost.  All  excuse  puts  in  the 
place  of  these  values,  not  what  is  real,  but 
only  what  is  agreeable.  It  is  as  if  one  over- 
threw in  himself  that  sanity  which  keeps  him 
rational.  To  that  abdication  of  sincerity, 
light  is  not  light,  and  darkness  is  not  dark- 
ness. Right  does  not  pass  as  right  and 
wrong  does  not  pass  as  wrong.     The  gen- 

r  82  1 


Dishonesty  in  Settling  the  Question 

uine  is  made  to  pass  as  counterfeit,  and  the 
counterfeit  as  genuine.  This  is  the  topsy- 
turvy world  exhibited  by  the  insane.  When 
a  man  will  not  follow  the  compass  of  his 
soul,  but  enthrones  mere  indifference  or 
mere  preference  where  reality  and  the  truth 
of  God  ought  to  be  —  that  quality  which 
makes  all  things  into  order  and  not  chaos  — 
he  has  so  cut  loose  from  moral  direction  and 
moral  value  as  to  be  already  lost.  When 
good  is  not  good  to  a  man,  and  evil  is  not 
evil,  he  is  lost.  Life  has  become  a  thing  of 
deceit  and  make-believe,  which  he  takes  as 
real.  Of  course,  closing  our  eyes  to  facts 
cannot  change  the  facts.  It  cannot  change 
the  facts  any  more  than  the  pilot's  tearing 
up  his  chart  can  remove  the  rocks  from  the 
sea.  Practicing  the  deceit  involved  in  all 
insincerity,  one  after  awhile  comes  actually 
to  believe  not  what  is  right,  nor  what  is  true, 
but  only  what  he  wants  to  believe,  and  thus 
the  very  standard  of  judgment  be  errant  and 
debased,  like  the  mind  that  overthrown  by 
defying  itself,  loses  sanity.  We  speak  of 
the  one  as  having  lost  his  mind;  of  the  other 
as  having  lost  his  soul.  And  in  both  cases 
the  hopelessness  of  the  estate  appears,  be- 

[  83  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

cause  the  very  standard  itself  —  obedience  to 
which  keeps  one  true,  —  is  the  thing  that  is 
debased. 

It  were  doubtless  agreeable  to  you,  reader, 
if  you  could  turn  away  from  all  considera- 
tion of  this  matter;  doubtless  agreeable  if 
you  could  put  off  doing  what  you  feel  you 
ought  to  do;  put  off  the  opening  of  this  mat- 
ter at  all.  But  as  he  should  do  you  no  kind- 
ness who  counselled  this,  so  you  should  do 
yourself  no  kindness  if  you  took  the  counsel. 
Here  is  a  claim  upon  you.  It  is  yours  to 
consider  whether  it  is  valid,  whether  it  is 
the  claim  of  God.  You  may  consider  wheth- 
er this  claim  is  from  God,  may  consider  it 
sincerely  and  honestly,  in  full  view  of  the 
facts.  That  will  be  to  take  gold  as  gold,  to 
take  counterfeit  as  counterfeit.  Or  you  may 
consider  this  claim  in  a  way  that  while  your 
consideration  of  it  is  really  dishonest,  will 
let  you  think  you  have  done  it  candidly. 
You  may  thus  take  counterfeit  as  gold.  But 
if  you  made  east,  west,  and  north,  south,  you 
could  not  get  where  you  wish  to  go  and 
would  be  lost.  You  would  not  know  where 
you  are,  nor  how  to  get  back  to  a  given  place 
again.     And  just  so  with  moral  values  and 

[  84  ] 


Dishonesty  in  Settling  the  Question 

directions.  The  maintenance  of  insincerity 
in  dealing  with  right  and  wrong,  puts  the 
one  in  the  place  of  the  other,  till  one  cannot 
tell  the  true  from  the  false,  nor  the  right 
from  the  wrong.  Allowing  that  to  go  on 
in  your  soul,  your  very  standard  by  which 
moral  values  themselves  are  measured  be- 
comes corrupt,  till  you  cannot  even  know^  how 
at  variance  with  the  moral  world  you  are. 

That  is  the  terribleness  of  sin.  And  that 
is  the  reality  of  the  consequence  of  sin.  We 
speak  in  the  one  case  of  losing  the  mind,  and 
in  the  other  case  of  losing  the  soul,  and  what 
we  know  of  the  terribleness  of  the  one  makes 
plain  the  terribleness  of  the  other. 


[8S  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  XII 

FEAR  OF  OTHERS  MAY  TAKE  THE  PLACE 
OF  OUR  OWN  HONEST  CONVICTION 

One  could  hardly  believe  that  in  so  serious  a 
business,  a  man  could  set  up  for  himself  to 
act  by,  such  a  thing  as  what  some  others  will 
think.  But  truly  there  are  persons  who  put 
their  timidity  and  fears  on  the  throne  where 
only  their  honest  convictions  should  be. 
They  put  what  others  will  think  before  loy- 
alty to  Christ.  It  is  nothing  to  such  that 
they  know  what  they  ought  to  do,  nothing 
that  the  compass  of  the  soul  points  its  sure 
direction,  nor  the  scales  of  judgment  show 
the  great  values  —  nothing  to  them  that  God 
has  a  will  and  that  they  have  convictions  and 
approvals.  They  are  afraid  of  men,  and 
give  themselves  and  the  direction  of  life 
over  under  the  dominion  of  some  few  of 
human  kind.  They  are  ashamed  of  Jesus. 
So  they  decide  they  will  deny  him  before 
men  and  confess  Him  in  secret. 

It  is  as  if  the  mariner  ignored  the  compass, 
and  his  chart,  and  the  stars,  for  the  caprice 

[  86  ] 


Fear  of  Others  vs.  Honest  Conviction 

of  some  sailor.  It  is  as  if  an  Apostle, 
ashamed  of  the  Gospel,  received  his  message 
from  some  other  he  is  more  anxious  to  please 
than  the  Lord,  w^ho,  as  friend  and  judge,  does 
rule  over  both  the  just  and  the  unjust. 


[  87  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ONCE  THE  START  IS  MADE,  CHURCH-MEM- 
BERSHIP IS  FULL  OF  DELIGHTS 

Like  many  other  things,  church-member- 
ship, once  the  start  is  made,  is  full  of  delights. 
Interest,  as  we  understand  perfectly  in  the 
case  of  money,  follows  investment.  We 
are  apt  to  become  interested  in  what  we  are 
busy  with  and  invest  time  in.  They  who 
have  no  interest  in  the  ball  games  we  de- 
light in,  have  only  to  go  to  the  games  for  a 
while,  to  become  as  interested  in  them  as  we. 
Conscripts  dreading  service  in  the  army, 
once  they  taste  the  life,  enjoy  campaigning 
just  as  veterans  do.  Missionaries  delight  in 
their  work;  delight  in  it  as  much  as  other 
men  delight  in  bridging  rivers  and  painting 
pictures  and  running  races  and  making  mon- 
ey. Church  people  are  happy  people  —  are 
the  happiest  people  you  can  find.  They  are 
not  constituted  differently  from  other  per- 
sons, nor  is  this  relationship  in  itself  distaste- 
ful. They  do  not  live  a  dull,  uninteresting 
life,  nor  go  forward  under  the  feeling  of  re- 

[  88  ] 


Church  Membership  Full  of  Delights 

gret  that  this  fellowship  with  Christ  is  duty. 
No.  They  take  their  cross  and  find  that  af- 
ter the  taking,  they  have  rest  and  delight. 
After  the  first  taking,  the  yoke  is  easy  and 
the  burden  is  light,  just  as  Christ  said.  These 
were  once  just  such  persons  as  you,  —  as  you 
who  think  you  could  never  be  happy  in  the 
Church.  And  here  now,  they  are  the  most 
genuinely  happy  persons  in  the  world. 

Starting  is  the  hard  part.  Once  in  the 
way,  one  does  not  find  the  Christian  way 
harder  or  less  delightful  than  other  ways. 
After  the  plunge,  swimmers  in  cool  water 
find  the  water  warm.  Pigeons  do  not  find 
flying  difficult,  but  starting  is  hard.  Once 
in  the  air,  they  can  fly  for  hours,  but  made  to 
rise  from  the  ground  a  few  times  in  suc- 
cession, they  are  so  exhausted  that  they  will 
not  try  to  rise  again.  Once  started  on  the 
Christian  way,  one  finds  it  as  delightful  as 
other  ways.  And  far  more  rewarding.  For 
the  sake  of  being  spared  the  cost  of  the  first 
start,  it  is  foolish  to  let  the  whole  of  life  be 
lost.  In  all  after  years  —  your  life  then  made 
glorious  —  you  can  be  mighty  glad  if  in  the 
springtime  of  your  years,  in  spite  of  your  de- 
sire to  spare  yourself  this  effort,  you  chose 

[  89  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

and  sealed  as  yours  while    you    could,  the 
good  part.     It  will  be  small  comfort  surely, 


"In  after  years  you  will  be  mighty  glad,  if  now  in  the  spring- 
time of  your  years,  you  sealed  as  yours  while  you  can,  the  good 

part" 

if  all  along  through  life  and  at  its  end,  all 
you  have  for  the  glory  you  have  missed,  is 
the  poor  satisfaction  you  will  get  out  of  the 
thought  that  you  had  your  own  foolish  way. 
To  please  yourself  may  seem  to  you  to  be 
worth  something  now,  but  you  know  per- 
fectly well  that  because  a  thing  is  pleasant, 
does  not  justify  it.     In  a  little  while  you  will 

[90  ] 


Church  Membership  Full  of  Delights 

curse  the  day  you  let  the  pride  of  the  mo- 
ment give  direction  to  all  your  years. 

Up  then  reader,  and  tolerating  in  yourself 
no  thing  you  would  condemn  in  another,  put 
yourself  on  Christ's  side.  Take  now,  the 
step  that  will  seal  your  choice,  past  any  lapse 
your  future  mood  or  wilful  preference  may 
bring  to  a  secret  choice.  Just  such  a  reso- 
lute decision  marks  every  beginning.  Be- 
gun is  half  done.  One  takes  himself  in  hand 
when  he  starts  on  a  journey,  goes  to  the  hos- 
pital, joins  the  army,  confesses  a  fault,  pays 
a  debt,  chooses  an  occupation,  breaks  a  hab- 
it. We  say  ''Now,  this  is  the  day."  And 
at  once  the  step  is  taken  that  seals  the  re- 
solve past  change.  Vacillating,  hesitating,  in- 
decision makes  cowards  of  us  all,  and  crowds 
upon  the  throne  of  life  by  inaction  the  very 
thing  which  in  intention,  sober  choice  has  dis- 
crowned. Indecision  lets  in  upon  us  in  some 
deed  at  hand,  the  thing  that  supplants  what 
our  sober  reason  and  conscience  have 
crowned.  By  taking  charge  of  the  first  step, 
our  denial  really  faces  us  in  the  wrong  direc- 
tion. That  is  why  it  is  all-important  that  the 
actual  thing  we  do  now  and  at  once  should 
express    our    sober    judgment.       What    we 

[  91  ] 


The  Exceeding  Worth  of  Joining  the  Church 

promise  sometime  to  do,  cannot  hold  its  own 
against  what  we  actually  do  at  once. 

It  is  with  the  profound  hope  that  some- 
thing herein  written  has  touched  the  heart  of 
the  reader,  that  leave  is  taken  of  him.  Let 
him  be  reminded  that  it  is  in  the  sense  of 
ought  he  finds  in  him,  that  God  speaks  to 
him.  If  any  such  feeling  has  come  to  the 
reader,  let  him  be  sure  his  is  a  high  privilege. 
That  sense  within  one  cannot  be  out  of  keep- 
ing with  all  the  other  creation  of  God,  but 
fits  in  with  it  and  is  supported  by  it.  That 
sense  is  in  him  because  the  fact  to  which  it 
answers  is  the  reality  outside  of  him.  So  all 
things  belong  to  him  who  follows  it,  just  as 
all  things  work  with  him  who  follows  great 
nature.  Let  the  reader  take  it  as  a  good  sign 
that  he  can  still  hear  this  voice,  and  see  the 
sin  of  going  in  the  contrary  way.  What  re- 
mains for  such  an  one  to  do  —  the  next  step 
—  is  openly  to  ally  himself  with  those  in  his 
community  who,  joined  together  in  a  body 
stronger  than  any  one  of  them  alone,  make 
the  spirit  and  presence  of  God  real  in  their 
lives  and  in  the  world. 


[  92  ] 


TO  THE  READER 

Knowing  as  I  do  the  greatness  for  weal  or  woe,  of 
the  step  you  will  now  take  —  whatever  it  is  —  I  beg  to 
add  a  personal  word.  If  you  are  sincere  in  this  mat- 
ter—  unwilling  to  play  any  trick  upon  yourself,  and 
resolved  to  practice  no  deceit  with  yourself  —  you  will 
want  to  know  how  you  may  make  the  most  out  of  your 
determination  to  do  what  so  fully  approves  itself  to 
you. 

Your  safety,  be  assured,  lies  in  your  taking  at  once 
a  step  in  the  direction  in  which  you  want  to  go.  In 
some  way  commit  yourself  at  once.  Make  a  covenant 
with  yourself.  If  you  are  in  earnest,  you  will  not 
hesitate  to  make  a  covenant  also  with  your  God.  And 
having  made  the  covenant  sincerely,  and  being  resolved 
to  keep  it,  you  will  not  fail  to  enlist  your  pastor  on  your 
side.  Write  him  some  note  like  follows.  To  take 
this  step  promptly  is  to  win.  Not  to  do  this  is  to 
take  counsel  of  your  excusing,  reluctant,  weaker  self. 
It  is  to  take  a  step  in  the  other  direction.  Certainly 
to  be  defeated  now  in  this  first  contest,  does  not  prom- 
ise anything  different  for  the  contest  tomorrow.  No ; 
be  sure  the  decision  you  make  now,  great  with  weal  or 
woe,  is  your  binding  decision,  and  make  it  right. 

Edward  E.  Keedy. 

To 

Pastor  of Church. 

Dear  Mr 

When  it  is  convenient  for  you,  I  should  be  glad  if 
you  will  tell  me  something  about  what  is  involved  in 
joining  the  Church,  and  what  fitness  is  required. 
Cordially  yours. 


\ 


Date  Due 

^' « 

^*i  ^ ,    . 

'i" 

M^maa^^&^^iiaaML ' 

^ 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01029  9248 


